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HIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

#|i«p--- fw#ur I 



* 



* UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ ' 



' '-•' 



AMERICAN GAME 



IN ITS SEASONS 



BY 



HEKEY WILLIAM HEEBEET, 

krTHOB OF "FBANK FOKESTER'S FIELD SPOETS," " FISU AND FISniNO," " WAEWICSt 
WOODLANDS," "my SIIOOTINQ BOX," "THE DEER-STALKERS," ETO. KI'V 



ILLUSTRATED FROM NATURE 



AND ON WOOD, BY THE AUTHOR. 



REVISED EDITION. 






NEW YOEK: / ^ 
GEORGE E. WOODWARD. 



ORANGE JUDD & CO., 345 BROADWAY. 

1873. 



"^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by 

GEO. E. AVOODWAED, 
In the OfTice of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



Poole & Maclauchlan, 

ppvinteks and bookbinders, 

205-213 East 12th St. 



ILLUSTlLATiONS 



FACLNQ PAGE 

FKONTISPIECE, ----- 1 

THE MOOSE, ----- ^ 

WILD GOOSE, - - - - « gg 

MALLAED AND WIDGEON, _ _ - ^^ 

SNIPE, ------ 89 

BASS, - - . - . - , 119 

AMERICAN TKOUT, _ - - - ^og 

BKANT, - - - - - 141 

BAY SNIPE^ _ _ _ - - 157 

SALMON, ----- 153 

VOOr ;OCK, ----- ;.g7 

MER DUCK, ---..- J03 



VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

FACING TAGE 

COMMON DEEK, - - ^ - _ ^21 

BLUE-WINGED TEAL, - - - - 237 

QUAIL, ----- - 253 

EITTEKN,- - - - - . - 266 

EUEFED GEOUSE, - - - - - 285 

YELLOW PEKCH, ----- g^Q 

CANVAS-BACK, ----- jj^g 

WINTER DUCK, - - - « . om 



CONTENTS. 



GAME IN ITS SEASONS. 

PAQB. 

JANUARY. 

Tun Cakicoo or American Reindeer. Cervus Tarandm. - 17 

FEBRUARY. 
The Moose Deer. Cervus Alces. ------ 45 

Tim Wild Goose. Anas Canadensis. ----- 53 

MARCH. 

The Mallard and Widgeon. Anas Boschas. Anas Americana. 71 

APRIL. 
The American Snipe. Scolopax Wihonii. - - - ~ g9 

Striped Bass. Lahrax Lineatus. ------ II9 

MAY. 

The American Trout. Sahno Fontinalis. - - - - 129 

The Brent Goose. Anas Bernicla. ----- 14i 

JUNE. 

Bay Snipe. IIudsonian Godwit. Limosa Hudsonica. Tue Eed- 

breasted Snipe. Scolopax Noveboracensis. - 157 

The Salmon. Salmo Salar. 169 



Xll CONTENTS. 

JULY. 

The Woodcock. Scolopax Minor, sive Microptera Americana. 187 

AUGUST. 
Tee Summer Duck. Anas Sponm sive Dendronessa, - - 203 

The Common Deer. Cervus Virginiamis. - - - - 221 

SEPTEMBER. 

The Blue-Winged Teal. The Green-Wingeo Teal. Anas 

Dicors. Anas Carolinensis. ----- 237 

OCTOBER. 
The Quail. Ortyx Virginio^nus. ------ 253 

Ijtk Bittern. Ardca Lentiginosa. ----- 2GG 

N0VE3IBER. 
The Ruffed Grouse. Tdrao Umhellus. - - - - 285 

The Yellow Perch. Percafiavescens.- - - - - 300 

DECEMBER. 
The Canyas-Back. yin<?s Valisncria. ----- 319 

The Winter Duck. FuHs:ula Bimaculata - - - - 332 



L 

JANUARY. 



i^Ijc Citi'ikff. 



THE AMERICAN REmDEEE, 

Cervus Tarandus. 
ARCTIC REGIONS-NEWFOUNDLAND TO NEW YORK. 



THE CAEIBOO. 

AMEEICAIT KEIISTDEEE. CcTVUS TaTauduS, 

Habitat ; from l^ewfoundland, through all the British 
provinces and possessions so far north as the artic seas, 
to the northern part of the State of ITew Tork. The 
Cariboo is not fonnd south of the St. Lawrence, farther 
west that the Black river, nor on the great lakes west- 
ward of the Ottawa. 

It is said that there exists several varieties of this 
splendid stag in the extreme northern regions, though 
they have not been defined even by the recent bold and 
scientific explorers of those inhospitable climes. 

I have, however, recently satisfied myself that there 
are, if not in Canada, at least in l!^ewfoundland, two dis- 
tinct varieties of Cariboo, one vastly superior in size to 
the other, and characteristically separated from the 
smaller, by the form and structure of its horns. Of this 
I am satisfied, by the examination of a pair of antlers, 
lately exported from that curious and interesting island, 
by my friend, Dr. Hugh Caldwell, which dififers entirely 
from those in my own possession, which furnished the 
models for my frontispiece, and from many specimens 



18 AM-EKICAN GAME. 

ill tlie office of the " Spirit of tlie Times," all broiiglit 
from the same island, by the late Mr. Hemy Palmer, of 
'New Brunswick. 

The general characteristics of this huge deer, inferior 
only in size to the Moose deer, Cervus Alus, of the same 
regions, and to the "Wapiti, Round Horn, or American 
Elk, Cervus Canadensis^ of the far west, differing and dis- 
tinguishing it from all other animals of the same species, 
are first : The peculiar structure of its horns, combining 
the proj)erties of the palmated and furcated structures. 
Second, Tlie length and looseness of its pelage, and the 
shortness of its tail, which rather resembles the scut of a 
hare, than the long flag of a deer; and thirdly. The ex- 
treme cleft of its hoofs and feet, extending up the pas- 
terns, nearly to the fetlock joint. A structure to which 
this animal ow^es its great facility in traversing the 
treacherous snow drifts, is tlie unparalleled spread of its 
hoofs and pasterns, the whole length of which rests on the 
surface over which it bounds, when in full action, up to 
the fetlock, supporting it wdiere small-footed animals of 
inferior size and weight would sink up to the belly at 
every stride, and where man himself labors even with 
the mechanical aid of snow-shoes. 

In speaking of the color of the Eeindeer below, as the 
most grizzly and lightest colored of its tribe, I am not cer- 
tain that I have not fallen into the error of assigning the 
characteristic coloring of one, the Newfoundland variety, 
and possibly the lointer coloring of that, as general 



THE CARIBOO. 19 

among the race. Mr. Wallop speaks of their " dark- 
brown hides," and some Canadian sportsmen have ob- 
jected to my description ; still I prefer letting what 1 
have written stand, since I wrote from actual inspection 
of IS"ewfonndland Cariboo skins ; and until I have seen 
others of darker hue, must hold in absence of other proof 
what I have seen to be true. 

If the Cariboo of the other British provinces, and the 
ISTorth-eastern States of America, differ in color from 
those of ISTewfoundland, my too general statement may 
perhaps tend to elicit further information, by which the 
numbers and distinctions of the several varieties may be 
definitively attained. 

It is not a little extraordinary, that this magnificent 
and noble species, which exists in considerable numbers 
within two hundred miles of the sj^ot where I sit writing, 
in the Adirondack Highlands — I mean of ISTew York — 
which abounds in the north-eastern part of Maine, 
swarms in JSTew Erunswick and K'ewfoundland, and in- 
deed everywhere IsTorth of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, 
to the extremest Arctic Hegions yet penetrated by the 
foot of man, should be yet less known to American 
writers — even on the topic of Natural History — than 
most animals of Central Asia, or the inhospitable wilds of 
Southern Africa. It is not even determined — so little care 
has been taken in examining or identifying specimens 
— ^whether it is one and the same, or a different species 
from the Eeindeer of the Europe- Asiatic continent ; nor 



20 AMERICAN GAME. 

have any of its peculiarities been noted down, sncli as 
tlie common indications of its statm-e, antlers, j^elage, 
and color, mncli less its anatomical and osseous structure, 
so as to permit of any accurate comparison being drawn, 
or decision arrived at. 

In proof of tlie loose w^ay in wliicli these self-styled 
descriptions of rare animals are drawn, in books of 
solemn pretension and supposed authority, I shall pro- 
ceed to quote the following from the Encyclopaedia 
Americana — a work of which I can only say, that it is 
equally profuse of needless information on subjects trite 
to every Sophomore, and sparing of facts, such as require 
research and are required by men of ordinary reading, 
who will search its pages vainly for what on occasion 
they may need to ask it. 

" Beindeer^^ — says the authority. " These animals in- 
habit the Arctic Islands of Spitzbergen, and the northern 
extremity of the Old Continent, never having extended, 
according to Cuvier, to the southward of the Baltic. 
They have been long domesticated, and their appearance 
and habits are well described by naturalists. The Amer- 
ican Reindeer, or Cariboo, are much less generally 
known ; they have, hov/ever, so strong a resemblance to 
the Lapland deer, that they have always been considered 
to be the same species, though the fact has never been 
completely established. The American Indians have 
never profited by the docility of this animal, to aid them 
in transporting their families and property, though they 



THE CARIBOO. 21 

annually destroy great numbers for their flesli and hides. 
There appear to be several varieties of this useful quad- 
ruped peculiar to the high northern regions of the Amer- 
ican Continent, which are ably described by Dr. Eichard- 
son, one of the companions of Captain Franklin, in his 
arduous attempt to reach the ISTorth Pole by land. The 
closeness of the hair of the Cariboo, and the lightness of 
its skin, when dressed, render it the most appropriate 
article for winter clothing in the high latitudes. The 
hoofs of the Keindeer are very large, and spread greatly, 
and thus enable it to cross the yielding snows without 
sinking." 

And this — without one word of its height, weight, 
color, or habitat — is the only information which the 
Editor of the American Encyclopaedia thinks proper to 
give Ins readers — exce]3t a brief description of Dr. Kich- 
ardson, about whom he seems to know a little, if he 
knew nothing about Cariboo — concerning an animal, 
which is killed almost annually within fifty miles of 
Albany, sold annually in Montreal, and in l^ew Bruns- 
wick and ISTova Scotia almost as common an article as 
venison, or Moose-meat during winter in the markets. 

Would not any one suppose, on reading the above, 
that he was dealing with the description of an animal, 
which roamed only wastes untrodden by the foot of the 
white man, save the adventurous explorers of the Arctic 
Circles, and concerning which no information can bo 
gained by the ordinary naturalists of this country? 



22 AMERICAl^ GAME. 

Cuvier and Ricliardson, and Audubon's stupendous 
work are not attainable by general readers, or even 
ordinary writers of cities ; to tiiose of tlie country tliey 
are utterly inaccessible — but to Encyclopsedists, and to 
men wlio sit down to reproduce great works on Natural 
History, wlio clioose to consult tliem, tliey are perfectly 
and easily open ; and there is no sliadow of excuse for 
tliose wlio profess to teach others, yet refuse to learn 
themselves. 

Had the writer of the above worthless trash thought fit 
to compare Dr. Richardson's description of the Cariboo, 
which it seems he had read — and which, like all that 
singularly able naturalist's descriptions, is doubtless as 
minute as correct — with Cuvier's description of the 
Heindeer, he might have pronounced as easily as he 
could whether two and two makes four or five, whether 
the American and Europe- Asiatic deer are identical or 
different. Godman, in his " Quadrupeds of J^ortli 
America," though a little more definite than Dr. Leiber, 
is scarce less bold and brief. Dr. Dekay, whose la- 
mented life has recently been brought to an untimely 
close, though he suspected it to be a denizen of 
'New York, was not fully assured of the fact, and there- 
fore has not, I think, described it in his Fauna of that 
State. 

I have myself, unfortunately, no immediate access to 
either Hichardson or Cuvier ; nor even to any well estab- 
lished work on the Animals of E'orthern Europe. But 



THE CAEIBOO. 23 

1 iiave seen a large lierd, in my youth, of the Lapland 
iteindeer, which, with their Esquimaux attendants, were 
exhibited many years ago in London ; previous to a 
futile attempt at naturalizing them in the Highlands 
and "Western Isles of Scotland; and have a fair general 
remembrance of the animal. I possess antlers of the 
Cariboo, which hang in my hall, and which are accu- 
rately portrayed in the wood-cut; I have handled 
twenty times the hides of this great deer ; and I have 
daily opportunities — in the office of my friend, W. T. 
Porter, of the Spirit of the Times — to examine the pre- 
served heads and legs of even finer specimens than my 
own. I have also letters, private, and writings pub- 
lished, of a [Mew Brunsvv-icker, avIio lias hilled the Cari- 
boo fifty times, and had opportunities of seeing the 
European Heindeer, at the Zoological Gardens in London, 
long since myself. I can, therefore, form a very fair con- 
jecture at the identity or non-identity of the species. At 
least, I can give some particulars of structure, stature, and 
pelage of the American Cariboo, which will enable oth- 
ers to judge, who are better posted up than I, in the pecu- 
liarities of the Lapland Eeindeer. And first — I will j)re- 
mise that although I have never seen the Cariboo in 
life, or in his native woods — which I trust to do before 
the snows of the next March shall have melted — the 
wood-cut illustration of this number is so closely made 
up from measurements of the various parts, heads, ant- 
lers, legs and hides of the animal, that I believe it to be 



24: AMERICAN GAME. 

as nearly correct as any litenoss can be, wliicli is not 
taken from an especial individual of tlie race. 

In the first place — as to the stature of the Cariboo, I 
was long ago struck by the statements of the ISTew 
Brunswick writer, " Meadows," alias Mr. Barton Wal- 
lop, alluded to above, which may be found in Porter's 
edition of Hawker's Field Sports, p. 326-333— "The 
Cariboo of this country are very like the Eeindeer, only 
a little larger" — and again — " As this is the first time 
you have seen a Cariboo trail, you will observe it is 
much like that of an ox^ save that the cleft is much 
more open, and the pastern of the animal being very 
long and flexible, comes down the whole length on the 
snow, and gives the animal additional support." 

Arguing on this statement, in my "Field Sports," 
knowing Meadows to have seen both animals, that they 
must be distinct, I pointed out that no one could dream 
of comparing a Lapland Reindeer's track to that of an 
ox, any more than to that of an elephant ; and observed 
farther, that the Lapland Reindeer is not a larger, but, 
to my recollection, a smaller animal than the common 
American Red-deer, Cerviis Virginianus of ISTaturalists. 
This coming casually under Mr. Wallop's eye, he wrote 
to me, in full confirmation of my opinion, that he had 
recently seen Lapland Reindeer in the Regent's Park 
Zoological Gardens, and wished to amend his former 
dictum^ by saying, that the Cariboo is at least one-third 
taller than the Lapland deer, and otherwise larger, and 



THE CAEIBOO. 25 

in otlier respects very different. Also tliat the Lapland 
animal is not taller than the British stag, or the Ameri- 
can Common Deer, or, if at all, very slightly so. 

JSTow, to come to my own observation, verified by 
measurement. The Cariboo antlers in my own possess- 
ion, not an mmsnally large pair, measure as follows : 

Extreme width from tip to tip, one foot four and a 
half inches. Length of curvature of antlers, from root 
to tip, two feet three and a half inclies. Direct height, 
twenty-three inches. Breadth of the j^^'i^^i^^ated brow 
antlers, eight inches. Length of do., eleven inches. 
Breadth of upper palm, eight inches. Length of do., 
twelve inches. Girth at the root of antler, five and a 
half inches. At insertion of upper prong, four inches. 
Kumber of prongs at the tips, unequal — three and two. 
At the upper palms, three. On the lower palms, seven 
prpcesses, including the princij)al point. 

Compare with this, the measurements of the antlers 
of a very fine specimen of the comm^on American deer, 
Cervus Yirginianus. 

Extreme width from tip to tip, eleven inches. Length 
of curvature along the back of antlers from root to tip, 
two feet and half an inch. Direct height, fifteen inches. 

Observe, however, that the greater curvature in the 
horns of the American deer, while it causes a larger 
comparative measurement, leaves a vast excess in height 
and show to the Cariboo. 

In the Cariboo, moreover — see eut-^the structure of 
2 



26 AMEEICAN GAME. 

the horns is directly the reverse of that of any other 
pahnated-horned animal I ever remember to have seen ; 
as the Moose, the English Fallow-deer, and to the best 
of my recollection the Europe-Asiatic Eeindeer. In 
both the former of these animals, the broad palms form 
the extreme upper tips ; while the lower spurs and brow 
antlers are round prongs ; and, to the best of my mem- 
ory, the Reindeer has no very conspicuous palms at all. 

In our common deer, again, contrary to any other 
deer I have ever seen — except a very noble nondescript 
specimen recently sent from Calcutta to the Spirit of 
the Times — the main branch of the antlers curves for- 
ward over the brow, offering the main defenses, the true 
brow antlers being mere erect prongs ; while all the 
tines are posterior to the main branch. 

In the American Elk, and in the British Stag, or Ked- 
deer, and in all other round-horned deer I ever saw, the 
main antlers rise erectly, with a slight backward curve, 
the brow antler and all the other tines springing from 
it anteriorly, and forming the true weapons for the ani- 
mal's defense. 

Tlie Cariboo, therefore, presents a curious combination 
of the round-horned and palmated-horned deer, in the 
first instance ; and of the usual, and American, round- 
horn structure, in the second. First, it has the round, 
pointed tips and sliarj), round prongs of the round-horned 
deer above, with the flat, leaf-like blades of the pal- 
mated-horned deer below. And, secondly, it has the 



THE CAKIBOO. 27 

forward curve at the tips and backward prongs above, 
of tlie American round-born, with the temble brow 
antlers and forward tines of the usual structure below. 

Lastly, it differs from all in this — that its brow antlers, 
instead of dividing with an outward curve over and 
without each eye, close with a straight inward inclina- 
tion, until the tips almost meet, nearly in the centre of 
a brow. 

Once more, as to size, there are the leg, with hoof, 
pastern and cannon-bone of an ordinary sized Cariboo ; 
and the leg, with hoof, pastern and cannon-bone of an 
extraordinarily large-sized American deer, and as such 
selected, hanging side by side in Mr. Porter's office. 
The limb of the Cariboo is considerably more than one- 
third superior in size to that of the common deer, and is 
fully equal to that of a yearling heifer of the very larg- 
est stature, and from its peculiar structure, being cleft 
nearly the full length of the pastern to the fetlock-joint, 
would evidently leave a much larger track. 

I have seen and ridden aged thorough-bred horses of 
fourteen and a half hands — four feet ten inches high — 
whose limbs were in all resj^ects inferior to that of this 
superb specimen of the deer tribe ; and right confident 
am I, from observation of several of their heads, their 
hides and hoofs, that from fourteen and a half to fifteen 
hands will be found to be the average height of the 
Cariboo. If the Lapland Eeindeer ever exceeds thirteen 
it will be surprising to me. While on this topic, how- 



28 a:mekicait game. 

ever, I • will beg tlie first Canadian or 'Nova. Scotian 
liunter whose eye tliis may meet, to furnisli me witli the 
full statements of height, weight and measurement of 
any Cariboo he may be so fortunate as to kill, or to have 
killed, during the present winter. Headers of Graham 
will find in the February nnmber of the year 1852, a 
correct and spirited representation of the antlers of the 
English Eed-deer ; and, if they will look forward to the 
months of February and Angust of this volume, they 
wdll find those of the Moose and American Deer, de 
signed by myself from the life, wdiich w^ill far more 
easily convey the comparison which I desire to draw, 
than wTitten words. 

As regards the nature of the pelage, or fur, for it is 
almost such, of the Cariboo, so far from its being, as the 
wiseacre of the Encyclopaedia states, remarkable for 
closeness and compactness, it is by all odds the loosest 
and longest haired of any deer I ever saw ; being, par- 
ticularly about the head and neck, so shaggy as to ap- 
pear almost maned. 

In color, it is tlie most grizzly of deer, and thongh 
comparatively dark brown on the back, the hide is gen- 
erally speaking, light, almost dun-colored, and on the 
head and neck fulvons, or tawny gray, largely mixed 
with white hairs. 

The flesh is said to be delicions ; and the leather made 
by the Indians from its skin, by their peculiar process, 
is of unsurpassed excellence for leggins, moccasons or 



TUE CARIBOO. '2d 

the like ; especially for tlie moccasoii to bo used under 
snow-shoes. 

As to its habits, while the Lapland or Siberian Eein- 
deer is the tamest and most docile of its genus, the 
American Cariboo is the fiercest, fleetest, wildest, shy- 
est and most untameable. So much so, that they are 
rarely pursued by white hunters, or shot by them, ex- 
cept through casual good fortune ; Indians alone having 
the patience and instinctive craft, which enables them 
to crawl on them unseen, unsmelt — for the nose of the 
Cariboo can detect the smallest taint upon the air of 
anything human at least two miles up wind of him — and 
unsuspected. If he takes alarm and start off on the run 
no one dreams of pursuing. As well pursue the wind, 
of which no man knoweth whence it cometh or whither 
it goeth. Snow-shoes against him alone avail little, for 
propped up on the broad, natural snow-shoes of his long, 
elastic pasterns and wide cleft clacking hoofs, he shoots 
over the crust of the deepest drifts, unbroken ; in which 
the lordly moose would soon flounder, shoulder deep, if 
hard pressed, and the graceful deer would fall despair- 
ing, and bleat in vain for mercy — but he, the ship of the 
winter wilderness, outspeeds the wind among his native 
pines and tamaracks — even as the desert ship, the drom- 
edary, outtrots the red sim.oon on the terrible Zahara — 
and once started, may be seen no more by human eyes, 
nor run down by fleetest feet of man, no, not if they 
pursue him from their nightly-casual camps, imwearied. 



30 AMERICAN GAME. 

following his trail by the day, by the week, by the 
month, till a fresh snow effaces his tracks, and leaves the 
hunter at the last, as he was at the first of the chase ; 
less only the fatigue, the disappointment and the folly. 
Therefore, by woodsmen, whether white or red skinned, 
he is followed only on those rare occasions when snows of 
unusual depth are crusted over to the very point at 
which they will not quite support this fleet and power- 
ful stag. Then the toil is too great even for his vast 
endurance, and he can be run down by the speed of men, 
inured to the sport, and to the hardships of the wilder- 
ness, but by them only. Indians by hundreds in the 
provinces, and many loggers and hunters in the Eastern 
States, can take and keep his trail in suitable weather — 
the best time is the latter end of February or the begin- 
ning of March ; the best weather is when a light, fresh 
snow of some three or four inches has fallen on the top 
of deep drifts and a solid crust ; the fresh snow giving 
the means of following the trail ; the firm crust yielding 
a support to the broad snow-shoes and enabling the 
stalkers to trail with silence and celerity combined. 
Then they crawl onward, breathless and voiceless, up 
wind always, following the foot prints of the wandering, 
pasturing, wantoning deer ; judging by signs, unmistak- 
able to the veteran hunter, undistinguishable to the 
novice, of the distance or proximity of their game, until 
they steal upon the herd unsuspected, and either finish 
the day with a sure shot and a triumphant whoop ; or 



THE CARIBOO. 31 

discover that tlie game lias taken alarm and started on 
the jmnp, and so give it up in despair. 

One man perhaps in a thousand can still-hunt, or 
stalk, Cariboo in the summer season. He, when he has 
discovered a herd feeding up wind, at a leisure pace 
and clearly unalarmed, stations a comrad in close am- 
bush, well down wind and to leeward of their upward 
track, and then himself, after closely observing their 
mood, motions and line of course, strikes off in a wide 
circle well to leeward, until he has got a mile or two 
ahead of the herd, when very slowly and guardedly, ob- 
serving the j)rofoundest silence, he cuts across their 
direction, and gives them his wind, as it is technically 
termed, dead ahead. This is the crisis of the affair ; if 
he give the wind too strongly, or too rashly, if he make 
the slightest noise or motion, they scatter in an instant, 
and away. If he give it slightly, gradually, and casu- 
ally as it were, not fancying themselves pursued, but 
merely approached, they merely turn away from the re- 
mote danger, and instead of flying, feed away from it, 
working their way down wind to the deadly ambush, of 
which their keenest scent cannot, under such circum- 
stances, inform them. If he succeed in this inch by 
inch he crawls after them, never pressing them, or draw- 
ing in upon them, but preserving the same distance still, 
still giving them the same wind as at the first, so that he 
creates no panic or confusion, until at length, when close 
upon the hidden peril, his sudden whoop sends them 



32 AMi:EICAN GAME. 

headlong down tlie deceitful breeze npon tlie treaclier- 
ous rifle. 

Of all wood-craft, none is so difficult, none requires so 
rare a combination as tliis, of quickness of siglit, wariness 
of tread, very instinct of tlie craft, and perfection of 
judgment. When resorted to, and performed to the ad- 
miration even of woodmen, it does not succeed once in a 
hundred times — therefore not by one man in a thousand 
is it ever resorted to at all, and by him, rather in the 
w^antonness of wood-craft, and by way of boastful experi- 
ment, than with any hope, much less exjDectation of suc- 
cess. 

For once, in my illustration, the trick has been played, 
and the game wins — the whoop is pealing on the wind 
beyond the dark, sheltering pines and hemlocks — the 
herd is scattered to the four winds of heaven — ^but the 
monarch of the wilderness, the ]3rime bull of the herd, 
bears down in his headlong terror full on the ambushed 
rifle. 

Lo ! with how brave a bound he clears that prostrate 
log. But the keen eye of the woodman is upon him ; 
another moment, and it shall glare along the deadly 
rifle ; the sharp, short crack shall awake the echoes of 
the forest, and ere they shall have subsided into silence, 
the pride of the woods shall have gasped out his last 
sigh on the gory green-sward. 

But this you will say is fancy — scarcely fact. Be it 
so. "What follows shall be fact, not fancy. For I shall 



THE CAKIBOO. 33 

beg leave to quote a few pages from Porter's Hawker by 
that " Meadows," wliom I have already mentioned — since 
his is the best description of this noble sport extant ; 
since to reproduce it, giving his thoughts in my OAvn 
altered words were worse than plagiary ; and since, if it 
meet his eye, he will be rather pleased than hurt that I 
have winged his words into a wider field, and to a larger 
audience than he at first addressed tliem. 

I will premise only, that "Howard," who figures as the 
hero, is a IS'ew Brunswicker, in E'ew Brunswick ; "Mea- 
dows," the narrator, an English tyro visiting his friend in 
the province ; Sabatisie, a Micmac Indian, henchman and 
guide of Meadows ; and Billy, last not least, Howard's 
pet bull-terrier. Scene, daybreak ! they have issued 
from the camp close to the hunting-ground where the 
Cariboo are supposed to "won" — as Chaucer would have 
written it — when lo ! quoth Meadows — • 

" After a hearty meal, every thing being ready, we 
mounted our snow-shoes and marched. The first golden 
rays were just struggling through the gray East, and 
dispersing the thick mist which hung over our camp, as 
I strode forth on my first Cariboo hunt, my heart leaping 
in anxious anticipation, and my nerves strung by the 
healthy atmosphere. "We proceeded in silence, and had 
ample time to observe the lonely grandeur of the sur- 
rounding forest ; the death-like stillness enlivened only 
by the cheerful chirp of the active ground-squirrel, or 
the loud boring of that most beautiful of woodpeckers, 



34 AMERICAN GAME. 

the Hid. We crossed Cariboo tracks at every' step, but 
still the Indian proceeded, his quick eye glancing at 
every trail. After about an hour's walk, we found our- 
selves ascending a steep mountain. Here the Indian 
came to a halt : in a low tone he told us that we were 
now near the Cariboo ground, this being the warm side 
of tlie hill, and good feeding ground ; cautioning us to be 
quiet, we again advanced, but had not gone far before 
we came to a trail that the Indian said was only made 
last night. Sabatisie chose the outside track of the herd, 
to take the wind — which, having followed about three 
miles, brought us to where the Cariboo had rested during 
the night. Tom placed his hand on the damp snow, and 
remarked that the Cariboo had not been up much before 
us, and could not be far off. 

" Eifles were now examined, and fresh caps put on — • 
Billy secured by a cord to Howard's belt. The tracks 
from the resting-place of the Cariboo branched off in 
every direction ; and the Indian leaving us, took a cast 
round, some distance, and having ascertained the direc- 
tion the herd had taken, he returned, and we cautiously 
followed him. I now perceived that at the bottom of 
the tracks the snow was a deep blue, and quite soft ; we 
were therefore quite near the game. Sabatisie halted 
and took off his snow-shoes that he might proceed with 
less noise. Howard beckoned me to him, and in a low 
whisper said — ' Do exactly as you see me do — follow 



THE CARIBOO. 



35 



close upon my track, and do not for your life make the 
slightest noise — we are close on them !' 

" Sabatisie and Howard now slung their snow-shoes 
on their backs : to prevent the crackling of the crust, 
the Indian with his fingers broke the snow before him, 
and placing his foot in the hole he made, quietly ad- 
vanced — Howard putting his in the track the Indian had 
left, I mine in Howard's. By this means we proceeded 
without the slightest noise ; and as our movements were 
simultaneous, we should to a person in front appear as 
one body. Our situation was anything but agreeable, 
up to the waist in snow. The trail became every mo- 
ment more fresh, and the eagle eye of our sagacious 
guide pried far into the depths of the forest in front. 
Suddenly he cast himself at full length on the snow, and 
remained so long in that position that I innocently thrust 
my head out of the line to see what was the matter ; but 
the Indian glared at me with anger and contempt, and 
Howard's sign recalled my senses. In front, the wood 
being quite open, Sabatisie had seen the Cariboo, and 
now made for a large pine to shelter his approach. His 
movements, as he dragged himself along on his belly in 
the snow, were snake-like ; and we followed, endeavoring 
as far as possible to imitate his very interesting contor- 
tions. At last I caught sight of the game. They were 
a large herd of 18 or 20 — rsome rubbing the bark from 
the branches — others performing their morning toilet, 
licking their dark-brown, glossy jackets, and combing 



36 AMEEICAJ^ GAME. 

tliem witli tlieir noble antlers. All appeared uncon- 
scious of the approach of tlieir most deadly foes, save 
one noble bull, tlie leader of the herd. He seemed sus- 
picious — with head erect, eyes darting in every direction, 
ears wagging to and fro, and nostril expanded, he snuffed 
the breeze. Upon this splendid creature the Indian kept 
his eye, never venturing to move, save when the head 
of the Cariboo was turned away. Inch by inch we ap- 
proached the tree. Oh! the agony of suspense I suf- 
fered in those few minutes ! 

"At length we reached our shelter. 'No time was 
lost. Howard signed to me to single out a Cariboo, 
while he took the noble leader, which was about 100 
yards distant — the Indian reserving his lire. We sta- 
tioned ourselves each side of the tree, and our rifles 
exploded almost at the same moment. Springing up to 
see the effect of my shot, I was pulled down by the 
Indian; what was my astonishment to see the bull 
Howard had fired at, stamping the snow and gazing 
around, with fire and rage in his eye, in search of his 
hidden enemy. As I looked at his formidable antlers, 
his majestic height, and great strength — a thought of 
our helpless situation crossed my mind. The Indian 
now rested his gun quietly on the tree, and took a long, 
steady aim — the cap alone exploded with a sharp crack! 
Quick as lightning the bull discovered our ambush, and 
with a loud snort made directly for us. Defence or re- 
treat against such a foe, in our situation, up to the w^aist 



THE CARIBOO. 37 

in snow, was almost impossible. In another bound the 
antlers of the enraged beast wonld have been in my 
side, when our gallant little dog dashed forward and 
seized the bull bj the muzzle. Sabatisie and Howard 
were busily employed putting on their snow-shoes ; and 
I endeavored to do the same, but with little success. 
The dog had luckily checked the beast, but he was no 
match for the enormous strength and wonderful activity 
of his adversary. Tossing his head, the Cariboo beat 
the poor little fellow on the snow and against the tree, 
till I thought every bone was broken. Finding this of 
no avail, the bull reared, and with his fore-legs dealt 
such a shower of quick and powerful blows, that I ex- 
pected to see the dog drop every minute. "While the 
Cariboo was in this j^osition, the Indian approached him 
behind and endeavored to hamstring him. But the eye 
of the bull was too quick ; wheeling like lightning, he 
made a rush at Sabatisie which must have been serious, 
but was avoided by his falling flat on his face, the Ca- 
riboo passing over him and wounding his back. Mean- 
while Howard had loaded, but his rifle having become 
wet, he could not discharge it. The violent exertions of 
the Cariboo had by this time broke the hold of the dog, 
and the furious beast now turned to the prostrate Indian 
— but before he could reach his prey, the dog was again 
at his head, checking, but not stopping his mad career. 
Sabatisie on his knee received the shock, and at the 
moment grasping the bull by tlie antlers, brought him 



38 AMERICAN GAME. 

down ; wlien Howard sprung forward and plunged his 
knife to the liilt in the breast of the Cariboo. With a 
last mighty effort, the noble creature dashed the Indian 
in the air, and the next moment his own strong limbs 
were quivering in death. 

" From the commencement of this burst, I confess, I 
was a little agitated — so much so, that I had not coolness 
sufficient to tie on my snow-shoes, or load my rifle ; but 
let not any blame me until they themselves have had 
the pleasure of being placed in the same delicate situa- 
tion, up to the waist in snow, and one of those emperors 
of the deer tribe dancing round in mad fury, threatening 
instant annihilation. On examination, we found How- 
ard's ball had taken effect just behind the shoulder, and 
would have caused death in a short time. 

" ' Hillo ! old boy, are you hurt V said Tom Howard, 
seeing the Indian still on his back. 

" ' Cariboo sartain lery strong^ grunted the poor 
fellow. His back was much lacerated. * Brother cut 
some gum, and soon be well,' said Sabatisie. 

" Howard gathered some balsam formed by the sap 
running from the bark of the fir-tree, and spreading it 
on a piece of his handkerchief, formed a strong adhesive 
plaster — staunching the blood, he placed it on the 
wound. 

" ' And now, Meadows, what has become of your 
game — think he is hit V 

" ' Yes, by Jove, I'll bet my rifle to a pop-gun he is — 



THE CAKIBOO. 39 

for see, Billy has settled down on liis track, and is in 
cliase. 

" ' On witli your snow-shoes, and away ! — the track 
with the blood will be plain as a van wagon — if you 
come up w4th the Cariboo, do not fire unless you are 
sure to kill. I must stop and see if the Indian is much 
hurt, and swab out my rifle — ^but I will soon overtake 
you — away now !' 

'' So urged, I started off, and found large drops of 
blood on the track the prime little dog had taken. As I 
proceeded, I saw the strides of the Cariboo were shorter, 
and he had been down several times. As I pressed on, 
in great hopes of overtaking the game before Howard 
came up, I observed the Cariboo had made for the valley, 
and after a sharp walk of an hour, I came to the stream, 
which was open. Here I lost the track, but saw the 
marks of the dog down the stream — these I followed, 
and soon heard the baying of the dog. As I proceeded, 
the river was every moment more rapid. After a sharp 
turn the stream was compressed between two huge cliffs, 
and rushed down a water-gap, forming a cascade of nearly 
one hundred feet. To the very verge of the fall the 
river was open ; but over the fall itself there was a thin 
coating of transparent ice, which clung to the perpen- 
dicular cliffs on each side of the narrow gap, forming a 
gauze-like veil. The towering cliffs around were covered 
with a frosting of ice ; and from the stunted pines which 
clung to the barren rock, hung myriads of fantastic 



40 AMERICAN GA^IE. 

icicles. At tlie foot of the fall, the blue water rushed 
out, clashing the white foam many feet in the air ; and 
through the thick woods which overhung the cascade, 
the sun cast his rays upon the gorgeous prospect, making 
every object throw forth a thousand brilliant shades, 
and the glittering ice which encircled the fall was so 
transparent, that the blue water could be seen beneath 
dashing furiously down, as if enraged at restraint. Not 
ten feet from the verge of the fall, on a rock in the 
centre of the river, stood the wounded Cariboo. The 
w^ater around him was fearfully rapid — one false step 
would carry him under the ice, and down the fall. On 
the bank stood the dog : my first care was to secure him, 
as he appeared ready every instant to make a spring 
that must have been fatal. The Cariboo had chosen a 
most admirable place of retreat ; nothing living could 
approach him with safety. On each side the perpen- 
dicular cliffs towered many feet over his head^— before 
him the roaring torrent, and behind the ice-bound cata- 
ract. After feasting my eyes on this wild and romantic 
scene, I approached as near the fall as the rugged cliff 
would permit. The Cariboo saw me, and with glaring 
eye-balls he shook his branching antlers in impotent 
rage, presenting to my rifle his broad front, as in defi- 
ance. I am not ashamed to say I was happy when I 
glanced at the rapid water and rugged cliff' between me 
and my devoted prey ; for I have no doubt, had it been 
in his power he would have soon shortened the distance 



THE CARIBOO. 41 

between us — and after what I had so Lately witnessed, I 
had no very great desire (seeing I was not as yet a perfect 
harlequin on snow-shoes,) to play the same game over 
again with my friend on the rock. To put an end to his 
wishes and my fears, I presented. My ball took effect 
directly in his brain, and he quietly dropped into the 
stream, leaving me master of the field. The next mo- 
ment I could see, through the transparent ice, his glossy 
hide gliding down the cascade." 

Amiable reader, thus it was that " Meadows" slew his 
first Cariboo ; and thus, pray for me, that I may kill 
mine, or ere a year be fiown. If I do, believe me, I will 
try to tell you how I did it, as well — better I may not 
tell you — as Meadows. And so, until next month, fare 
you well ! 



II. 

FEBRUARY. 



Cervus Alces. 

NORTHERN WILDERNESS, BEYOND THE OTTAWA; NEW 
FOUNDLAND TO NEW YORK. 



Anas Canadensis. 

NORTH AMERICA, ARCTIC REGIONS, MOUTHS OF THE 
MISSISSIPPI. 



THE MOOSE DEER. 

Cervus Alces. 

This gigantic deer, tlie largest of all the deer tribe, and 
wliicli is distingnislied from all others not only by the 
magnificence of its dimensions, but by the fact that it is 
the only one of the genus which is uncouth in its form, 
ungraceful in its attitudes, and awkward and ungainly 
in its action and gait, is identical in every respect with 
the Elk of Europe, no distinction being discernible on 
the closest examination. It must, however, on no ac- 
count be confounded w^itli the great Wapiti Deer, or 
American Elk, Cervus Ccmandensis^ as it is in every 
respect difi'erent and distinct. The Moose-deer, which 
derives its name in the vernacular from its appellation 
in the Algonquin tougue, onusu^ is entirely a JSTorthern, 
and more especially a North-Eastern animal, being most 
abundant in the British Provinces of !N'ova Scotia and 
New Brunswick, in Maine, the northern part of New 
Hampshire, and the Adirondack Highlands of the state 
of New York, beyond which to the westward it is never 
found south of the St. Lawrence, nor I think is there any 
reason to believe that its rans-e has ever extended far to 



46 A]VIERICAN GA^IE. 

the west of tliis limit or southward to the Atlantic coast. 
In Lower Canada, on both sides of the St. Lawrence 
below Quebec, and on the north side so far as to Mon- 
treal, it is exceedingly abundant, but to the westward of 
that city it is rarely if ever found south of the great 
Ottawa river. A single Moose was killed during the 
summer of 1819 by an Ojibwa Lidian on the Severn 
river, which debouches into the north side of the great 
Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, the skull of which I saw 
myself, and it was asserted by the Lidians generally, 
that none of the race had been killed within the last 
fifty years, at nearly which distance of time it was a 
traditional belief that one had been killed, a straggler, 
in the same vicinity. To the northward of this they 
roam as far toward the pole as the forest region extends, 
the Moose being, as we shall see when we come to speak 
of his structure and habits, as much adapted to the 
forest, as is the American Elk, or Wapiti, Cervus Cana- 
densis^ to the prairie. 

The original limits of these two great deer would seem 
to have been originally almost identical as to their 
frontiers, the one beginning exactly where the other 
ceases to exist, and the one being as remarkably a 
western as the other is an eastern animal. The Elk was 
found originally from the western regions of Pennsyl- 
vania, if not throughout all the inland portions of that 
state, through all the intermediate states, a little way 
back from the sea-board, of Virginia, Kentucky, and 



THE MOOSE DEEK. 



47 



Tennessee, in all of which it has now ceased to exist, to 
the great prairie states of the west and the foot of the 
Rocky Mountains, in many of which it is still found 
frequently, although it cannot be said to abound until 
you pass the Mississippi and even go beyond the cross 
timbers. Why this deer ever received the title of 
Cervus Canaden^is^ it is difficult to state, as I find no 
indication of its ever having existed in Canada, but I 
fancy it has arisen from a mistaken application of the 
French term Orignal^ or Elk, to this animal, which is 
beyond doubt really applicable to the Moose, that 
animal being, in fact, as I have observed, the Elk of 
Europe, and having the flat palmated horns of that 
species, whereas the Wapiti has the round branching 
antlers of the red deer of Europe, Cervus Elaphus^ to 
which animal it bears a very strong analogy, and except 
in its vast superiority of size, closely resembles. 

The Moose is the largest of all the deer tribe, an old 
bull standing full eighteen hands high at the shoulder, 
or six feet common measure, while the cows do not fall 
short of fourteen or fifteen. The fore-legs of this deer 
are very disproportionately long as compared to the 
hind legs, and the shoulder stands so much higher than 
the rump, that at a casual glance you would suppose the 
animal to be standing up hill. His neck is so short and 
cumbrous that he cannot gi'aze on the ground without 
much difficulty, straddling his fore-legs very wide apart, 
and even then gathering his food from a plain surface 



48 AMERICAN GAME. 

with great difficulty and even pain ; lie is not, liowever, 
a grazing animal by nature, tliougli lie may resort to it 
at times, from wliim or for the lack of other means of 
subsistence, but essentially a browser, for which mode of 
feeding he is particularly adapted, being in a lesser 
degree of the same structure with the cameleopard, 
although the latter is loftier and far more exaggerated 
in the height of his foreparts, owing to the immense 
altitude of the trees — a species of mimosa — which afford 
his favorite nourishment. Further than this, the huge, 
flexible, prehensile upper lip of the Moose, which he 
uses nearly as an elephant does his trunk, is of great 
service to him in collecting the leaves and tender twigs 
of the birch and alder, which, with the tips of some of 
the evergreens, are his choice dainties. In the summer 
season, when the woods are alive with Pharaoh's plague 
of flies and musquitoes, which seem to devote themselves 
with particular assiduity to the tormenting this great 
giant of the wilderness, he delights to resort to marshy 
pools and lakelets, where he wades out till his head is 
barely above the surface, and lies there wallowing 
deliciously all day long in the pure cold waters, safe 
from his winged persecutors, and browses in security on 
the floatino: leaves and buds of the water-lilies and on 
the aquatic grasses which he crops as he swims or wades 
about at his pleasure. 

The horns, for antlers they cannot correctly be called, 
of the male are an enormous and apparently useless 



h 



THE MOOSE DEEE. 4:9 

apparatus, for the bull Moose iiglits principally with his 
huge, deeply-cloven hoofs, which he handles with great 
dexterity, and with which he can inflict very heavy 
blows. They often weigh from fifty-six to sixty pounds 
the pair, and present a flat palmated surface, intersected 
upwardly by irregular ribs or ridges, each terminating 
in a short snag or rounded point, one of which is added 
every year until they attain their full stature. The 
weight of these is enormous, and accordingly when the 
animal runs, which he does at a heavy, awkward, 
shambling trot, he thrusts his nose high into the air, 
w^itli his short, sturdy neck pointed upward, so that the 
horns are rested in some degree upon the back, partly it 
may be supposed for the purpose of support, and partly 
to avoid entanglement among the branches and thick-set 
stems of the cedar-swamps which they most frequent. 
These horns they shed annually in the spring of the 
year, and annually renew, the surface being covered 
with a soft velvet-like fungus, while they are young and 
tender, and gaining hardness and consistency till in the 
rutting season, which occurs in the latter summer and early 
autumn, they are perfect in size and formidable as wea- 
pons of offence. At this period the bulls may be heard 
roaring and bellowing throughout the mountain gorges of 
the ranges which they frequent, in the evening espe- 
cially, and in the early gray of dawn, and when they hear 
the lowing of the cows they come crashing through the 
forests with fierce and amorous heat; and if two rival 



60 AMERICAN GAME. 

sultans meet in tlie presence of a single sultana, woe to 
tlie weaker, for lie must needs go to tlie wall after a 
desperate conflict, fought out, as if by the knights of 
old, in the presence of the queen of love if not of beauty, 
whose caresses are to be the reward of the victor. 

Of this propensity foresters take advantage in the sea- 
son, by imitating the call of the cow Moose, which is 
easily done by blowing a peculiar note through a com- 
mon cows-horn, the end of which is partially immersed 
in w^ater, or on a trumpet made of birch or alder bark 
for this very purpose by the Indians, who are great 
adepts at its use, and rarely fail to extract a reply from 
the bulls, and ultimately to lure him up within a few 
feet of the circle of hemlock or cedar-boughs among 
which they await his coming full of amorous fury and 
proud defiance, with the ready gun, which soon levels 
his branched honors in the dust. 

It not unfrequently happens that two bull Moose will 
be attracted by the same call, will bellow their responses 
to it tlirough the echoing ravines and gorges, and will 
finally tear down through the rent and crashing under- • 
wood, and meeting with a roar of defiance do battle at 
outrance in the presence of the ambushed enemy, avIio 
watches for his advantage at every instant of the fray, 
and rarely fails to bring down both of the competitors 
for an imaginary fair one, by a cowardly and ignoble 
triumph. And a magnificent spectacle it must be to 
witness, alone and unassisted in the depths of the pri- 



THE MOOSE DEER. 61 

meval forest, in the gray and silvery moonlight, or in the 
purple dawn of autumnal morning, the fierce and noisy 
jousting of two of these great forest champions. 

There is another mode of pursuing these great deer 
dm'ing the summer season, when they wade into the 
deep waters to eschew the myriads of flies, which is 
spoken of with rapture by those who have enjoyed it — 
that is, to make the wilderness your home, your hemlock- 
bed and bark-roofed camp your dwelling-place, and with 
canoe, and rod, and rifle, stealthily to paddle along the 
winding water-courses, keeping as much as possible 
within the shadows of the shore, and under the protec- 
tion of the overhanging branches, when you can often 
steal up within easy gun-shot and bring them down with 
one well-directed bullet. The liberty, the independence, 
the rapturous excitement of this sort of life is entirely 
indescribable ; the delight with which you sleep in the 
free, fresh, odoriferous air of the forest, with your soft, 
elastic hemlock-bed — sure preventive of all rheumatic 
pains — ^beneath you, and the blu6 vault, with all its 
diamond stars above you ; the zest with which you 
enjoy the meal of fresh trout from the river, or sweet 
digestible wild meat from the woods, the fruits of your 
own prowess ; the health, the strength, the energy of 
mind and body which you earn by your rugged toil, and 
rude though savory food ; the perfect sense of hardihood 
and self-reliance, which you derive from thus owing 
every thing that ministers to your enjoyment, to your 



52 AMERICAN GAME. 

own skill and manliood ; then, witli tlie splendor of tlie 
American autumn weather, and the gorgeous w^oodland 
scenes which you must penetrate, these alone would pay 
you for your toils ; cares there are none in the w^oods, 
nor anxieties, nor ailings, nor sorrows — for these, with 
the ringing of door-bells at unseasonable hours, and the 
advent of matutinal duns, not to bo satisfied save with 
the uttermost farthing, these are the growth of cities, 
and the tormentors of the civilized and cockney gentle- 
man, unknown to the forest, and set at easy defiance by 
its hardy, happy inhabitant. Oh ! give to others wdio 
will it, the luxuries of city life, the costly banquets, the 
rich wines, the fascinations of women, the maddening 
excitement of play, the " venerem, et plumas, et coenam 
Sardanapali," but give me my hemlock shanty for my 
palace, my hemlock-bed for my couch of dowm, my rifle 
for my mistress, and my trusty Indian for my comrade 
and my guide ; and, winter or summer, scorching sun or 
deep-piled snow, the wilderness, give me the wilderness. 
" The life in the woods for me." 

When winter sets in cold and stern, then it is not the 
Moose's paradise — rather it is his anti-paradise, and the 
winter of his discontent made glorious summer to his 
adversaries, who then hug hope to run him down by 
their strength of wind and limb, and to conquer him by 
open force and no unmanly fraud or base deceptions. 

Well aware that he cannot travel safely or feed easily 
and plentifully, when his goings to and fro are converted 



THE MOOSE DEER. 53 

into painful floundcrings tlirougli deep snow-diifts, or yet 
more painful plungings and breakings througli tlie sur- 
face crusted with glassy ice, when the trees on which to 
browse are few and far between, no sooner do the first 
snows begin to fall than the Moose resort to one of two 
plans, each equally ingenions and equally adapted to the 
nature of the ground for which they are intended. If a 
bull intends wintering by himself, as sometimes occurs, 
wherefore we know not ; he seeks out some hill, and 
crosses and recrosses it a hundred times from summit to 
base, and from base to summit, and then girdles it with 
a hundred of parallels, intersecting the perpendiculars, 
all of slowly made and deeply trodden foot-paths, 
trampled down and beaten again, after each fresh suc- 
ceeding snow-fall, till the whole snowy hill is cut up and 
checkered into a net-work of firm, hard-trotted paths, 
along which he can travel at whatever pace he lists, 
whether lazily lounge along to browse on the succulent 
shoots, or pounding away at his hard swinging trot, with 
his wide-spread hoofs crackling at every track, in lull 
flight from his pursuers, at a rate of eight or nine miles 
an hour, with the advantage still of feeding as he goes, 
snatching a juicy morsel from every favorite bush as he 
dashes along. 

When the Moose adopts this mode of wintering, unless 
the party of hunters is sufficiently strong to post a num- 
ber of persons on different stands along the Moose-paths 
to intercept him as he tracks their labyrinthine ways, it 



54 AMEKICAN GAME. 

avails little or nothing to attempt liim ; for having many 
miles of hard- trodden paths on which to run, while his 
pursuers cannot follow them on account of their narrow- 
ness, but must blunder along their sides on snow-shoes, 
with little or no chance of tracking him, since the paths 
are so hard as to receive no impress from his hoofs, he 
will keep on running, a half-mile or so ahead of pursu- 
ers, without hurrying himself beyond his need till he shall 
worry out the strongest hunter, and so escape shot-free. 

The more usual method, however, for them to winter, 
is by yarding, as it is termed, or collecting into small 
bands or droves of greater or smaller numbers, but con- 
sisting in general of one old bull, two or three 
younger males, three or four cows, and the calves of 
several years accompanying their dams — for it is not 
usual for the young to quit the cows until they are two 
or three years old — and then forming yards, or large 
spaces, well and regularly trampled down so as to be 
sunk between walls of snow several feet in height, con- 
taining within their area trees and shrubs enough to 
afford ample pasture for the herd during the whole con- 
tinuance of the cold weather, and from these they never 
stir until the return of soft spring-time and the melting 
of the snows. 

It may be well here to state, that, in the opinion 
of many of the best naturalists and foresters of 
this country, the two habits, alluded to above, as path- 
making and yarding, are in truth accidental matters, and 



THE MOOSE DEEK. 55 

the fortuitous result of circumstances, rather than any 
peculiarities of instinct or sagacity in the animals to 
which they are ascribed. 

These persons contend that the net-work of paths, after 
the manner described above, intersecting and checkering 
whole mountain-sides, are naturally produced by the rov- 
ing perambulations of the great deer ; and are not made 
by him, with any design of future facilities in obtaining 
forage, but simply in the course of present search for it. 

Farther, they declare that the yards are not formed, or 
even used, as a temjDorary winter habitation, from which 
the animals do not wander during the continuance of 
cold weather ; but attribute their occurrence merely to 
the unavoidable stamping to and of a family, or a small 
herd, of these noble cervines, over the snowy surface of 
some spot which has casually attracted them by the 
abundance of succulent food offered by its underwood ; 
and that they quit such places, from time to time, "in 
their ordinary rambles; and entirely, for another and 
better place, so soon as its supplies are exhausted. This, 
I regard, the truer and more philosophic view. 

These yards are carefully hunted out by the Canadian 
Indians, and the tidings are brought into the garrison 
toAvns, and received with a perfect burst of enthusiasm 
by the officers of her majesty's regiments quartered there, 
and having little to relieve the monotony of winter, ex- 
cept curling or tandem-driving, unless when a chance of 
a Moose-hunt raises a gay alarum. 



56 AMEEICAN GAIVIE. 

Eifles are liimted up, and bullets run, snow-shoes are 
buckled on, and the green-liorns excite great sport for 
tlie old stagers, by kicking their own sliins, and tumbling 
on tlieir own noses at every second stride. Blankets, and 
baskets of provision, not forgetting tlie ammunition, the 
spirit-flasks, the tobacco-pipes, and the tea-kettle, are 
packed upon the tobogins, or Indian sledges, made of 
light wood, to be drawn by the red-hunters through the 
open forests, and then away for the wild, broad, bound- 
less snow-clad wilderness — the hard tramp by day, the 
blazing camp-fire, the leafy bed, the fragrant pipe, and 
the flowing bowl at nig^nt, and the sleep as sound and as 
warm beside the roaring pyre, with an untented heaven 
above, and a temperature 40 degrees below you, as 
though it were taken in a silken chamber, pillowed on 
down and canopied with velvet. 

And now the yard is reached, and one, or perhaps two 
deliberate and murderous shots are fired, and then away 
through the treacherous snow-drifts, away over the de- 
ceitful ice-crusts flounder the huge beasts at their speed 
in mortal terror. Away, hard on their traces, flying on 
fleet snow-shoes, follow the impetuous and shouting 
hunters. 

Sometimes for days that headlong chase endures, the 
weary beasts and worn-out men, lying up or encamping, 
perhaps not a quarter of a mile asunder, when light fails 
them and they can run no longer, and with the break of 
dawn renewing the wild career for life or death, for de- 



THE MOOSE DEER. 57 

feat or ignominious glory. That is no sport for boys or 
striplings, but bard work for strong, stoiit-beartecl men. 
But tbe science and the pluck of man prevails in tbe 
end ; one by one tbe beasts are overhauled, tbe heaviest 
first and the weakest, a rifle-shot, and a shrill ^^who- 
whoop " announces the fall of the forest king — a slash 
of the keen knife steeps the snow with his life-blood, and 
away, away, over the crackling crust, with the keen win- 
ter's wind warming itself against your face, and your 
heart thrilling with a rapture unknown to the laggard 
loungers of city sidewalks, unsuspected by the sordid 
and selfish voluptuary. 

Such, friends, is the winter Moose-hunt of the Cana- 
dian wilderness. Try it, friends, once, and my life on it, 
each succeeding winter will find you rifle in hand, and 
snow-shoe on foot, in the interminable forest northward 
of Quebec, stretching thence on unbroken to the Arctic 
seas — for verily it is the king of American field-sports. 



THE CANADA GOOSE. 

Anas Canadensis, 

This is the bird known universally tlirouglioiit tliis 
continent, as tlie Wild-Goose, and yet, although that is 
not in truth his correct apellation, we do not in this 
instance very particularly demur to it ; since it is by 
very far the most important of all tlie species of this 
genus, which visit our shores. The term Wild-Goose is 
properly applied to the Gray Lag Goose of Europe, which 
is beyond any doubt the stock whence is derived the 
common domestic goose of our barn-yards, and w^hich 
precisely resembles the tame bird, with the exception 
that the ganders do not become white among the wild 
fowl ; on this, however, no distinction of origin can be 
supported; for it is well understood that one of the con- 
sequences of domestication, is that in the process of gen- 
erations it converts animals, which are unicolored in their 
natural state, to piebalds, dapples, and various new 
colors, in their artificial condition. 

The true name of this bird is the Canada Goose ; a 
title which was given to it under the impression that its 



i 



THE CANADA GOOSE. 69 

breeding-grounds lay in tliat country, and in the vicinity 
of tlie Great Lakes. Since tlie period, however, when 
those provinces have become more thickly settled, more 
observation has been bestowed on the haunts, habits, and 
migrations of birds ; and it is now well ascertained that, 
although a few stragglers may breed in various seques- 
tered spots both in the States and in the Canadas, all the 
main hordes proceed still northward beyond the utmost 
habitations of man, beyond the limits of the Arctic Cir- 
cle, perhaps beyond the Pole itself, there to nestle and 
rear the young in the untrodden solitudes, where no 
breath of humanity has ever polluted the pure air, amid 
the brief but delicious summer of the polar regions, 
where they rejoice — to quote the eloquent words of Mr. 
Giraud, in his birds of Long Island — where they rejoice 
in " the absence of that great destroyer, rain, while the 
splendors of a perpetual dry ]\Iay render such regions 
the most suitable to their purpose." 

The Canada Goose, though rare, is not unknown in 
Northern Europe, or even in England, where it is very 
frequently domesticated as an ornament on artificial 
lakes, within the bounds of parks and pleasure-grounds. 
In unusually severe winters, it is sometimes killed on the 
sea-coasts and on the inland lakes of Scotland, and 
the north-eastern parts of England, though not in such 
numbers as to constitute it an object of regular pursuit. 
!N^or is its flesh there considered a luxury, whether that 
from change of climate and diet, it really becomes rank 



60 AMERICAN GAME. 

and unj)alatable, or that whim and fashion in tliis caso 
rule the roast. 

Certain it is that, here, it is one of onr best sea-shore 
wild fowl, mejudice the very best; for its flesh is succu- 
lent and juicy, never rank or fishy, not even sedgy, and, 
when hung long enough in frosty weather, as tender as 
the tenderest, even in the old ganders, which many per- 
sons consider an abomination. 

The breeding-grounds of the Canada Goose, have never 
as yet been, and probably never will be ascertained oth- 
erwise than negatively, as they lie, doubtless, beyond the 
reach of man's all-daring footstep, there being no point 
however northerly, to which the bold discoverers of the 
highest latitudes have penetrated, at which the Goose 
has not been observed still wending his way northward, 
ever northward. " They were seen by Hearne," says 
"Wilson, in his American Ornithology, " within the Arc- 
tic Circle, and were then pursuing their way still farther 
north. Captain Phipps speaks of seeing Wild Geese 
feeding at the water's edge on the dreary coast of Spitz- 
bergen, in lat. 80° 27'. It is highly probable that they ex- 
tend their migrations to the Pole itself, amid the silent 
desolations of unknown countries, shut out since the crea- 
tion to the prying eye of man by everlasting and insu- 
perable barriers of ice." 

Throughout the United States and the British provinces 
from the Straits of Bellisle and the Gut of Canso east- 
ward, to the Osage river westward ; the biennial migra- 



THE CANADA GOOSE. 61 

tiona of the Canada Goose are well known to all ob- 
servant inhabitants ; and at the close of autumn and the 
opening of the spring, their vast phalanxes are seen 
wending southward and northward, with the regularity 
of the seasons themselves, cleaving the snow-laden and 
misty air with the circular sweep of their heavy pinions, 
and opposing to the currents of the atmosphere the 
arrowy point of their wedge-like formations, while the 
hoarse "honk" of the leading gander, answered again 
from the rear of the battalia, calls the attention of us 
groveling earthlings to their immeasurable march, 
steadily sweeping onwards thousands of yards above our 
pigmy heads. 

Of their spring flight, as they return from the mouths 
of the Mississippi, from the great unfrozen lakes and 
bayous of the southwest to their far northern homes, 
thus eloquently sung their own appropriate poet laureat, 
the well-beloved and long-lamented sportsman bard, 
known wheresoever the staunch dog is followed, and the 
true trigger drawn, as J. Cypress, Jr, 

" They come, they tear the yielding air with pennon fierce and strong ; 

On clouds they leap from deep to deep, the vaulted skies along ; 

Heaven's light horse, in a column of attack upon the pole. 

"Was ever seen on ocean green, or under the blue sky, 

Such disciplined battalia as the cohort in your eye ? 

Around her ancient axis let old Terra proudly roll, 

But the rushing flight that's in your sight, is that shall wake your soul. 



62 AMERICAN GAME. 

" Hawnk ! honk ! and for'ard to the nor'ard, is the trumpet tone, 

What Goose can lag, or feather flag, or break the goodly cone 

Hawnk ! onward to the cool blue lakes where lie our safe love-bowers ; 

Xo stop, no drop of ocean brine, near stool or hassock hoary, 

Our traveling watchword is * our mates, our goslings and our glory /' 

Symsonia and Labrador for us are crowned with flowers. 

And not a breast on wave shall rest, until that heaven is ours. 

* Hawnk! Hawnk! E—e Hawnk!" 

And this, but with the smallest tincture of poetical 
extravagance and license, is a fair and correct picture of 
their vernal northward march ; for although they do in 
truth pay us of the midland seaboards a short visit so 
soon as our sea bays are clear of ice, and do occasionally 
" stop," and at great peril to themselves, " drop by stool 
or hassock hoary," still their spring sojourn with us is 
of short duration. Early in April they collect them- 
selves in vast flocks, soar skyward, and breaking into 
wedge-shaped phalanxes, headed by the strongest gan- 
ders, which are hourly relieved by their comrades, so 
that each of the males in his turn takes his share of 
arduous toil of breasting foremost the resistance of the 
atmosphere, and opening the path for his followers. 

Little stint they of force, little stay make they, unless 
for necessary food and rest by night, or when bewildered 
by dense fogs and unable therefore to steer northward, 
more truly than the needle to the pole, until they reach 
the northern shores of Lake Huron and the waters of 
the Great Georgian Bay, where they remain for some 
time, longer or shorter, according to the state of the 



THE CAJN-ADA GOOSE. 63 

season, and tlie gradual disappearance of the ice, afford- 
ing, meantime, sport and subsistence to the Indians, who 
paddle stealthily upon them in their birch canoes, or 
shoot them from bough-houses constructed on points 
which command their favorite feeding grounds in the 
rice lakes and flats around the mouths of the I^orthern, 
the Wye, the Severn, and their neighboring affluents. 

Thence, so soon as the ice disappears, they are up and 
away, and are no more seen by the eyes of man, except 
as they sweep across the marshy plains about the dis- 
persed and distant forts of the fur companies, until in 
October, they recommence their earlier voyagings, now 
journeying southward with recruited strength and aug- 
mented numbers, for now each noisy gander and his 
mate are accompanied by two full-grown and full-feath- 
ered goslings, and tarrying scarcely for a moment on 
the great lakes, or in the inland waters, until they reach 
their favorite autumnal haunts in the great south bay of 
Long Island, and all along the inlets and lagoons of the 
Jersey shore, Squam Beach, and Barnegat, and the two 
Egg Harbors, where they disport themselves, and revel 
in the sheltered waters, and grow fat on the broad, ten- 
der leaves of the sea-cabbage, a common marine plant 
which grows about the stones and shells on the sea- 
beaches, and on the roots of the sedges, which they are 
constantly seen in the act of tearing up, and occasionally 
make excursions to the inlets on the beach for sand and 
gravel, until these inland bays are frozen over solidly 



64: AMERICAN GAME. 

with continuous ice, forbidding them to obtain their food, 
and compelling them yet once again to take wing and 
fly more southward yet, to where no frost nor north-east 
tempest cometh. 

During this visit it is that they afford the most sport 
to the gunner, and that they are harassed, especially 
about Long Island, by every poacher's device and arti- 
fice which can be devised to slay them, fairly or unfairly, 
by man, wholly without consideration, and reckless that 
the slaughter on their very feeding grounds is fast ban- 
ishing them from regions where, with all their watchful 
sentries out and on the alert, they are decimated hourly 
by volleys from unseen and unsuspected foes. 

The worst, most murderous, and least sportsmanly of 
all these artifices is ^' the 'battery^'^ an engine long but 
vainly proscribed and prohibited by the I^ew York Leg- 
islatures, but still in use in all the Long Island waters, 
though the shrewder, if not more honest or less poaching 
Jerseymen, tolerate it not in their lagoons and inlets, 
which still swarm with the fowl daily seen less and 
less in the Long Island bays. 

" The battery," says a good writer in the Spirit of the 
Times, " is formed of a deal box, about seven feet long, 
three wide, and two deep ; from the rim of this a plat- 
form of board runs off at right angles, about six feet on 
every side, and the interior is caulked to render it water 
tight. This is moored on some shoal where the birds 
are observed to be in the habit of resorting, and bal- 



THE CANADA GOOSE. . 65 

lasted witli stones until the platform merely floats upon 
the surface of the water ; this flat surface is then lightly 
covered with sedge, so that at a very short distance 
nothing but a small quantity of apparently floating weed 
is discernible." 

Into this destructive machine, having arranged his 
carved and painted wooden decoys, or " stools," around 
it, the gunner descends with his guns, and lying flat on 
his back, awaits, from before the first glimmer of dawn, 
the arrival of the Geese on their feeding grounds, which 
he butchers by scores or even hundreds, while they are 
floating here and there feeding unsuspiciously. "When 
it is considered that on every shoal on which fowl can 
feed throughout the Long Island waters, two or three of 
these murderous contrivances are anchored, so that the 
fowl can never feed in quiet — and at no other period 
are fowl so jealous of disturbance as while feeding — 
and that they are, moreover, constantly harassed at the 
same delicate period by being shot at from sailing-boats, 
running down among them before the wind, before they 
are aware, it is no wonder that they should rise high 
into the air, and deserting these inhospitable purlieus, 
seek safer places, where, if they be shot at fiercely, and 
compelled to run the gauntlet of innumerable fires, as 
they fly to and fro from beach to feeding-ground, and 
from feeding-ground to beach, they are at least allowed 
to feed in peace and without molestation. 

The mode practiced in the Jersey waters is this, and 



()6 . AMEKICAN GAME. 

it is not liable to the objections brought against tlie for- 
mer mode, while it affords sport sufficient to glut the 
greediest sportsman, who shoots for sport, not fovpot or 
market. 

^N^iches are cut in the mud-banks, or points, across 
which the fowl flj from the beach to the feeding-grounds, 
and vice versa ; into these niches the Egg Harbor skiffs ; 
which the gunners use, are backed up, and in these^ 
their decks plentifully strewed with sedges, clad him- 
self in dingy sedge-colored raiment, the fowler lies, with 
his heavy guns expectant. His decoys are moored in 
the water around him, and as they bob up and down 
with the bobbing of the tide, they closely resemble a 
real flock of fowl j:iding at anchor in the shallows. 

Here, so soon as the saffron tints of morning begin to 
steal upon the gray of the eastern sky, the hoarse honk 1 
of tlie gander reaches the latent gunner's ear — his quick 
eye glances to the windward, and faint and far on the 
bright dawning back-ground he discerns, dimly pen 
ciled, the form of the anxiously desired wedge. 

" Aw-unk ! aw-unk !" he sets up aloud the well-sim 
ulated cry, crouching down closer in his sedge-covere* 1 
egg-shell, and cocks his two ponderous single-barrelled 
duck guns. "Aw-unk! aw-unk!" the leading gander 
answers — " Aw-unk ! E-e — awnk !" 

Near by they come and nearer ; now he can mark the 
circular sweep of their vast oary pinions, and now they 
spy the stools, and now they stoop toward them — thea 



THE CAJSTADA GOOSE. 67 

pause and liover, lialf suspicious — they are alarmed, they 
seem about to turn. Oh ! most exciting instant. 

"Aw-unk! aw-unk!" E-e — awnk!" That admirable 
mimicry has now succeeded. They are decided — they 
wheel — stoop — ^now — now — ^lie can see their very eyes. 
Up goes the heavy gun, and the loud roar, that harbin- 
gers the flight of five oz. of BB, is as the knell to the 
leading gander, and three that fly the next behind him. 
Up starts the ambushed enemy, seizes his second piece, 
sights it almost by instinct, and the flash and the roar 
are simultaneous — and, " By Heaven ! it snows Geese !" 
as I once heard old Jesse shout at Barnegat, on a day 
when, with a trusty comrade, we slew us twenty Geese, 
and well on to a hundred Black Duck, Scaup, and Brent 
Geese. If this be not sport enough for sportsmen, why, 
then, turn poacher, most ungentle reader, and earn the 
malediction of all who love a fair field and fair play for 
all things, whether they be fish, flesh, or fowl. 

Here is a brief description of our bird. Look to the 
wood-cut at the head of this paper, and see if you dis- 
cern his " very form and body," if not his " age and pres- 
sure." Length of bill, from the corner of the mouth to 
the end, two inches and three-sixteenths; length of 
tarsi, two inches seven-eighths; length from point of bill 
to end of tail, about forty inches ; wing, eighteen inches. 
Head and greater portion of neck, black; cheeks and 
throat, white. Adult, with the head, greater part of 
neck, primaries, rump and tail, black ; back and wings, 



68 AMEKICAN GA:ME. 

brown, margined with paler broAvn ; lower part of neck, 
breast, and belly, wliitisb-gray ; flanks, darker gray; 
cbeeks and throat, upper and under tail-coverts, white ; 
the plumage of the female rather duller. 

Such, reader, is our Canada Goose, or American Wild 
Goose, a game, bold bird in air and on water, a grand 
bird on the board. Mine may it be, in both capacities, 
to meet him soon and often, but especially at sunrise, 
from the lee of some sheltered hassock to be greeted 
with his resonant " Aw-unk ! E-e — aw-unk !" 



III. 

MABCH. 



m^t Pdlarir. 



Anas Bosch as, 

EUROPE; ASIA; CANADA; UNITED STATES 



Anas Americana. 
HUDSON'S BAY; CANADA; ATLANTIC COASTS. 




I ^ 

^ o 

I i 



/ 



THE MALLAKD. 

Anas Bosclias, 

THE AMEKICAN WIDGEOIST. 

Anas Americana. 

Both these beautiful clucks, perhaps, with the excep- 
tion of the lovely Summer Duck, or Wood Duck, Anas 
Sj^onsa^ the most beautiful of all the tribe, are along the 
seaboard of the ]^orthern States somewhat rare of 
occurrence, being for the most part fresh-water species, 
and when driven by stress of weather, and the freezing 
over of the inland lakes and rivers which they frequent, 
repairing to the estuaries and land-locked lagoons of the 
Southern coasts and rivers, as well as to the tepid pools 
and warm sources of Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, 
Alabama and Louisiana, in all of which states they 
swarm during the summer months. 

On many of the inland streams and pools of ITew 
York, iN'ew Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Far "West in 
general, including all the bays, shallows and tributaries 
of the Great Lakes, as well as all the lovely smaller 
lakes of iCTew York, especially where the wild-rice, or 



72 AMERICAN GAME. 

wild oat, zizania aquatica^ is plentiful, tliey are found in 
very great numbers, especially in the spring and sum- 
mer time, nor are they unfrequently killed on the snipe- 
grounds of ITew Jersey, around Chatham, Pine-brook, 
and the Parcippany meadows on the beautiful Passaic, 
and on the yet more extensive grounds on the Seneca 
and Cayuga outlets, in the vicinity of Montezuma 
Salina, and the salt regions of ]!:Tew York. 

In the shallows of the lake and river St. Clair, above 
Detroit, on the Biviere aux Canards^ and the marshes of 
Chatham in Canada East, all along the shores of Lake 
Erie on the Canadian side, especially about Long Point, 
and in the Grand River, they literally swarm ; while in 
all the rivers, and shallow rice-lakes on the northern 
shores of Lake Huron, which are the breeding-places of 
their countless tribes, they are found, from the breaking 
Tip of the ice to the shutting up of the bays and coves in 
which they feed, in numbers absolutely numberless. 

The Mallard is generally believed to be the parent 
and progenitor of the domestic duck, which, although 
far superior in beauty of plumage and grace of form and 
deportment, it very closely resembles ; yet when or 
where it was domesticated, is a question entirely (Jark 
and never to be settled. It is certain that the domestic 
duck was unknown to the Greeks and Pomans, so late 
as to the Christian era, although the paintings in the 
Egyptian tombs demonstrate beyond a peradventure 
that it was familiar to that wonderful people from a very 



TIIE MALLARD. 73 

remote period ; and it is also known to have been among 
the Chinese, who rear and cultivate them to a very great 
extent. Indeed, it is, I think, in the highest degree 
probable that tlie duck, in its domestic state, is an 
importation into Europe from the East, where, as I 
believe in every quarter of the globe, the Mallard is a 
common and indigenous native of the fresh waters. 

The Mallard, or Wild Drake, commonly known in the 
Eastern States as the Green-head, westward as the Gray 
Duck, and in Alabama as the English Duck, weighs 
from thirty-six to forty ounces, and measures twenty- 
three inches in length, by thirty-five in breadth. 

The bill is of a yellowish-green color, not very flat, 
about an inch broad, and two and a half long from the 
corners of the mouth to the tip of the nail ; the head and 
upper half of the neck are of a deep, glossy, changeable 
green, terminated in the middle of the neck by a white 
collar, with which it is nearly encircled ; the lower parts 
of the neck, breast and shoulders are of a deep, vinous 
chestnut ; the covering scapular feathers iire of a kind of 
silvery white, those underneath rufous, and both are 
prettily crossed with small, waved threads of brown. 
Wing coverts ash, quills brown, and between these 
intervenes the speculum^ or beauty-spot, common in the 
duck tribe, which crosses the Aving in a transverse, 
oblique direction. It is of a rich, glossy purple, with 
violet or green reflections, and bordered by a double 
streak of sooty black and pure white. The belly is of a 
4 



74 AMERICAN GAME. 

pale gray, delicately crossed and pencilled with number- 
less narrow, waved, dusky lines, which on the sides and 
long feathers that cover the thighs are more strongly 
and distinctly marked. The upper and under tail 
coverts, lower part of the back and rump, are black, the 
latter glossed with green ; the four middle tail feathers 
are also black, with purple reflections, and, like those of 
the domestic duck, are stiffly curled upward. The rest 
are sharp-pointed, and fade off to the exterior edges 
from brown to dull Avhite. Iris of the eye bright 
yellow, feet, legs and webs reddish orange, claws 
black. 

The female, and young male until after the first moult, 
are very different in plumage from the adult drake, par- 
taking none of its beauties, with the exception of the 
spot on the wings. All the other parts are plain brown, 
marked with black, the centre of every feather being 
dark and fading to the edges. She makes her nest, lays 
her eggs — from ten to sixteen in number, of a greenish 
white — generally in the most sequestered mosses or bogs, 
far from the haunts of man, and hidden from his sight 
among reeds and rushes. To her young, helpless, un- 
fledged family, and they are nearly three months before 
they can fly, she is a fond, attentive and watchful parent, 
carrying or leading them from one pool to another, as 
her fears or inclinations direct her, and she is known to 
use the same wily stratagems, in order to mislead the 
sportsman and his dog, as those resorted to by the ruffed 



THE MALLAED. 75 

grouse, the quail and the woodcock, feigning lameness, 
and fluttering as if lielj)lesslj wounded, along the surface 
of the water until she has lured the enemy afar from her 
skulking and terrified j^rogeny. 

The Mallard is rarely or never shot to decoys, or stools 
as they are termed, since these are but little used except 
on the coast, where this duck is, as I have previously 
observed, of rare occurrence, although it is occasionally 
found in company with the Dusky Duck, anas obscura^ 
better known to gunners as the Black Duck. 

It is stated, however, by Dr. Lewis, in his clever work 
entitled " Hints to Sportsmen," that, " like most of wild 
fowl, the Mallard breeds in the far north, and makes its 
appearance in the autumn, among the first of our ducks. 
It is common throughout all our rivers and fresh- water 
lakes, but is seldom met with on the sea-coast. As the 
T^dnter progresses, large numbers continue south, and 
take up their abode among the rice-fields of the Carolinas, 
where they become very fat and particularly palatable ; 
their flesh at all times when the weather is not severe is 
good, as they feed on vegetable matter in preference to 
any other kind of food, and only partake of flesh when 
they cannot obtain anything else. 

"Mallards are easily brought within gunshot by 
means of decoys used in the way already described 
under the head of Canvass Backs. They are numerous 
at times on the Delaware, and numbers are killed by 
shooters hidino; themiselves in boats and in the reeds 



Y6 AMERICAN GAME. 

within range of tlieir stool ducks, wliich are set out on 
the edge of the reeds. They are fond of the seeds of the 
wikl oats that flourish so profusely on the flats of the 
Delaware, and their flesh soon becomes delicate and 
juicy." 

Of this statement I doubt not the correctness, although 
what I have written above is founded on my personal 
observation, having shot wild fowl in the United States 
only on the Long Island and New Jersey shores, or the 
inland rivers of the Atlantic coasts, and on the great 
lakes, where decoy ducks cannot readily be procured. 

In England and on the continent of Europe Mallards 
are netted in great numbers in decoy ponds fabricated 
for that purpose, a full account of which, with plans, 
will be found in Beurich's British Birds, vol. ii. ; but as 
this method is not adopted in the United States, it is 
needless further to allude to it. 

" Like the Dusky Duck," says Mr. Giraud, in his very 
clever and agreeable manual on the birds of Long Island, 
" when pursued by the sportsman, it becomes shy, and 
feeds at night, dozing away the day out of gun-shot from 
the shore. 

"Early in the month of July, 1837, while hunting 
over the meadows for smaller game, I came upon a pair 
of Mallard Ducks, moving slowly down the celebrated 
' Brick-house creek.' The thought occurred to me that 
they were a pair of tame ducks that had become tired 
of the monotony of domestic life, and determined on 



THE MALL^UID. i t 

pushing tlieir fortunes in tlie broad bay. As I advanced 
they took wing, which undeceived me, and I brought 
them down. They proved to be an adult male and 
female. From this circumstance I was led to suppose 
that they had bred in the neighborhood. I made a dili- 
gent search, and offered a sufficient bounty to induce 
others to search with me — but neither nest nor young 
could be found. Probably w^hen migrating, they Avere 
shot at and so badly wounded as to be unable to perform 
their fatiguing journey, perhaps miles apart, and per- 
chance only found companions in each other a short 
time before I shot them." 

When the young birds are about three-fourths grown, 
and not as yet fully fledged or able to fly strongly, at 
which age they are termed Jlccpj>ers, they afford excellent 
sport over water-spaniels, when they are abundant in 
large reed beds along the brink of ponds and rivers. 
When full grown, moreover, when they frequent parts 
of the country where the streams are narrow and wind- 
ing, great sport can be had with them at times, by 
walking about twenty yards wide of the brink and as 
many in advance of an attendant, who should follow all 
the windings of the water and flush the birds, which 
springing wide of him will so be brought within easy 
range of the gun. 

The Mallard is wonderfully quick-sighted and sharp 
of hearing, so that it is exceedingly difficult to stalk him 
from the shore, especially by a person coming down 



Y8 AMERICAN GAME. 

wind uj^on liim, so mucli so that the aciiteness of his 
senses has given rise to a general idea that he can detect 
danger to windward by means of his olfactory nerves. 
This is, however, disproved by the observations of that 
excellent sportsman and pleasant writer, John Colqn- 
houn of Lnss, as recorded in that capital work, " The 
Moor and the Loch," who declares decidedlj^, that al- 
thongh dncks on the feed constantly detect an enemy 
crawling down npon them from the windward, will con- 
stantly, when he is lying in wait, silent and still, and 
properly concealed, sail down upon him perfectly imsns- 
picious, even when a strong wind is blowing over him 
full in their nostrils. 

For duck shooting, wdiether it be practiced in this 
fashion, by stalking them from the shore while feeding 
in lakelets or rivers, by following the windings of open 
and rapid streams in severe weather, or in paddling or 
pushing on them in gunning-skiffs, as is practiced on the 
Delaware, a peculiar gun is necessary for the perfection 
of the sport. To my taste, it should be a double-barrel 
from 33 to 36 inches in length, at the outside, about 10 
guage, and ten j^ounds w^eight. The strength and weight 
of the metal should be principally at the breech, which 
will answer the double purpose of causing it to balance 
well and of counteracting the call. Such a gun will 
carry from two to three ounces of Is'o. 4 shot, than which 
I w^ould never use a larger size for duck, and with that 
load and an equal measure of very coarse powder — 



THE MALLAED. 79 

The first thing desirable, then, for every sportsman I hold 
to be, to furnish himself with the best and most available 
gun, as an instrument, suited to the purpose for which he 
requires it, at a price suited to his means. 

First, the gun must be a good one in itself, well built, 
of good materials, strong, sound, and safe by the excel- 
lence of metal and superiority of finish, w^hich also pro- 
duce eflicient carrying of its charge, rapid firing, and 
clean killing. Secondly, the gun must particularly suit 
the individual owner. Such a gun as I describe can be 
furnished of first-rate quality by manufacturers of good 
reputation and long experience, in the cities of Phila- 
delphia, Kew York, or Boston, of very superior work- 
manship, and ranging in price, according to finish, 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars, of 
domestic manufacture ; and lAvoukl strongly recommend 
sportsmen, requiring such an implement, to apply to one 
of these excellent and conscientious makers, rather than 
even to import a London gun, much more than to pur- 
chase at a hazard the miserable and dano-erous Birmins:- 
ham trasli, manufactured of three-penny skelp or sham- 
damn-iron, got up in liandsome velvet-lined mahogany 
cases, and tricked out with varnish and gimcrackery ex- 
pressly for the American market, such as are ofi'ered for 
sale at every hardware shop in the country. 

The selling of such goods ouglit to be made by law a 
high misdemeanor, and a fatal accident occurring by 



80 AMERICAN GAME. 

their explosion should entail on the head of the vender 
the penalty of wilful murder. 

The Mallard is found frequently associating in large 
plumps with the Pintail, or Sprigtail, another elegant 
fresh water variety, the Dusky-Duck on fresh waters, the 
Greenwinged Teal in winter to the southward, and w^ith 
the "Widgeon on the western waters. 

On the big and little pieces — two large moist savannas 
on the Passaic river in ^N'ew Jersey, formerly famous for 
their snipe and cock grounds, but now ruined by the 
ruthless devastations of pot-hunters and poachers — I have 
shot Mallard, Pintail, and Black Duck, over dead points 
from setters, out of brakes, in which they were probably 
preparing to breed, during early snipe-shooting; but 
nowhere have I ever beheld them in such myriads as in 
the small rice-lakes on the Severn, the Wye, and the 
cold w^ater rivers debouching into the northern part of 
Lake Huron, known as the Great Georgian Bay, and on 
the reed-flats and shallows of Lake St. Clair, in the 
vicinity of Alganac, and the mouths of the Thames and 
Chevail Ecarte rivers. 

I am satisfied that by using well-made decoys, or 
stools, and two canoes, one concealed among the rice 
and reeds, and the other paddling to and fro, to put up 
the teams of wild fowl and keep them constantly on the 
move, such sport might be had as can be obtained in no 
other section of this country, perhaps of the world ; and 
that the pleasure would well repay the sportsman for a 



THE AMERICAN WmGEON. 81 

trii) far more difficult and tedious than the facilities af- 
forded by the Erie Eailroad and the noble steamers on 
the lakes now render a visit to those glorious sporting- 
grounds. 

The Amekican Widgeon, the bird which is represented 
as falling headforemost with collapsed wings, shot per- 
fectly dead without a struggle, in the accompanying 
woodcut, while the Mallard goes off safely, quacking at 
the top of his voice in strange terror, though nearly allied 
to the European species, is yet perfectly distinct, and 
peculiar to this continent. 

It is thus accurately described by Mr. Giraud, although 
but an unfrequent visitor of the Long Island bays and 
shores : 

"Bill short, the color light grayish blue; speculum 
green, banded with black. Under wing coverts white. 
Adult male with the coral space, sides of the head, under 
the eye, upper part of the neck and throat brownish 
white, spotted with black. A broad band of white, com- 
mencing at the base of the upper mandible, passing over 
the crown." It is this mark which has procured the bird 
its general provincial appellation of " Baldpate." " Be- 
hind the eye a broad band of bright green, extending 
backward on the hind neck about three inches ; the 
feathers on the nape rather long ; lower neck and sides 
of the breast, with a portion of the uT)per part of the 
breast reddish brown. Best of the lower parts white, 

excepting a patch of black at the base of the tail. Under 

4-x- 



82 AMERICAN GAME. 

tail covert the same color. Flanks brown, barred with 
dusky ; lower part of the hind neck and fore part of the 
back undulated Tvith brownish and light brownish red, 
hind part undulated w^itli grayish wdiite ; primaries 
brown ; outer webs of the inner secondaries black, mar- 
gined with white — inner webs grayish brown ; secondary 
coverts white, tipped with black; speculum brilliant 
green, formed by the middle secondaries. Length 
twenty-one inches, wing ten and a half. Female smaller, 
plumage duller, without the green markings." 

The Widgeon breeds in the extreme north, beyond the 
reach of the foot of civilized man, in the boundless mosses 
and morasses, prodigal of food and shelter, of Labrador, 
and Boothia Felix, and the fur countries, wdiere it spends 
the brief but ardent summer in the cares of nidification, 
and the reproduction of its species. 

During the spring and autumn, it is widely distributed 
throughout the Union, from the fresh lakes of the north- 
west to the shores of the ocean, but it is most abundant, 
as well as most delicious where the wild rice, Zizanict 
pannicula effusa, the wild celery, Balisneria Americana^ 
and the eel-grass, Zostera Marina^ grow most luxuriously. 
On these it fares luxuriously, and becomes exceedingly 
fat, and most delicate and succulent eating, being almost 
entirely a vegetable feeder, and as such, devoid of any 
fishy or sedgy flavor. 

In the spring and autumn it is not unfrecpiently shot 
in considerable numbers, from skills, on the mud banks 



THE AMERICAN WIDGEON. 83 

of the Delaware, in company with Blue-winged Teal; 
and in winter it congregates in vast flocks, together with 
Scaups, better known as Bluebills, or Broadbills, Eed- 
heads, and Canvasbacks, to which last it is a source of 
constant annoyance, since being a far less expert diver 
than the Canvasback, it watches that bird until it rises 
with the highly-prized root, and flies off with the stolen 
booty in triumph. 

The Widgeon, like the Canvasback, can at times bo 
toled, as it is termed, or lured within gunshot of sports- 
men, concealed behind artificial screens of reeds, built 
along the shore, or behind natural coverings, such as 
brakes of cripple or reed-beds, by the gambols of dogs 
taught to play and sport backward and forward along 
the shore, for the purpose of attracting the curious and 
fascinated wdld fowl within easy shooting distance. And 
strange to say, so powerful is the attraction that the 
same flock of ducks has been knoAvn to be decoyed into 
gunshot thrice within the space of a single hour, above 
forty birds being killed at the three discharges. Scaups, 
or Blackheads, as they are called on the Chesapeake, 
tole, it is said, more readily than any other species, and 
next to these the Canvasbacks and Redheads ; the Bald- 
pates being the most cautious and wary of them all, and 
rarely suffering themselves to be decoyed, except wlien 
in company with the Canvasbacks, along with which 
they swim shoreward carelessly, though without appear- 
ing to notice the dog. 



84 AMERICAN GAME. 

It has been supposed that Ducks in general, and the 
Widgeon m particular, are of keen scent; and I am 
more particularly induced to allude to this from the fact 
of my finding the following in the work of Dr. Lewis, 
who is usually so correct, that to point out an error of 
opinion is in no wise to detract from its credit or utility. 

" The best w^eather for this sport" — ^paddling a punt 
upon flocks of Widgeon — " is a clear, windy, half moon- 
light night," says he, " provided the wind does not blow 
from you, as the ducks may smell you; in fact, it is 
always necessary to get to leeward of wdld fowl of all 
kinds, as their power of scenting is very great." 

That Dr. Lewis should have fallen into this error does 
not at all surprise me, since it is one prevalent among 
English gamekeepers, and American gunners and bay- 
men alike. Such men, who are invariably excellent 
observers of facts and judges of effects, and on whose 
advice, not to attempt to advance upon flocks of wild 
fowl feeding, down wind, either by land or water, it is 
very well to rely, are for the most part indifferent dedu- 
cers of causes ; and I have rarely found one of either 
class, on whose judgment concerning the cause of any 
habit, instinct, migration, or movement, however well 
established as a fact, the least reliance could be placed. 

That this alleged fact, of wild fowl having the power 
of scenting an enemy, is an error, has been distinctly 
established by that excellent sportsman and judicious 



THE AMEEICAJSr WIDGEON. 85 

writer Colquhoun, and my o^vn observation fully con- 
firms his assertion. 

Wild fowl w^ill not allow you, it is true, to creep on 
tliem over land, or paddle upon tliem over water, down 
the wind ; but that is because the breeze bears down 
the sound of your approach to their keen ears, not the 
taint of your presence to their nostrils. If you are con- 
cealed up wind of them, and preserve silence, they fly 
or swim up to your ambush, perfectly fearless, and 
unscared by your presence, which — had they any real 
power of scenting at a distance — ^their sense of smell 
would equally reveal to them, whether you were station- 
ary, or in motion. 

These birds, with their congeners, are also shot from 
points, as at Carrol's Island, Abbey Island, Maxwell's 
Point, Legoe's Point, and other places in the same 
vicinity about the Bush and Gunpowder rivers, while 
flying over high in air ; and* so great is the velocity 
of their flight when going before the wind, and such the 
allowance that must be made in shooting ahead of them, 
that the very best of upland marksmen are said to make 
very sorry work of it, until they become accustomed to 
the flight of the wild fowl. They are also shot occasion- 
ally in vast numbers at holes in the ice which remain 
open when the rest of the waters are frozen over ; and 
yet again by means of swivel guns, carrying a pound of 
shot or over, discharged from the bows of a boat, 
stealthily paddled into the flocks at dead of night. 



S6 AMEKICAN GAME. 

when sleeping in close columns on the surface of the 
water. This method is, however, much reprobated by 
sportsmen, and that very justly, as tending beyond any 
other method to cause the fowl to desert their feeding 
grounds. 

In conclusion, we earnestly recommend both these 
beautiful birds to our sporting readers, both as objects 
of pleasurable pursuit and subjects of first rate feeds. 
A visit at this season to Seneca Lake, the Montezuma 
Meadows, or that region, could not fail to yield rare 
sport. 



IV. 
APRIL. 



Cj)c ^incriniu Snip. 

Scolopnx WilsonU. 

TPIE ENGLISH SNIPE. 

BRITISH PROVINCES; UNITED STATES; ARCTIC REGIONS 
TO MEXICO. 



^'Ije Stripcir ^ii.s.s 



Lahrax Lincntus. 

THE ROCK FISH. 

BAY OF FUNDY TO THE CAPES OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 




rr. O 

a 



THE AMERICAIST SNIPE. 

Scolojyax Wilsoiiii. 

THE ENGLISH SNIPE. 

It is a singular thing, and one wliicli elucidates the 
great research necessary, and the extreme difficulties en- 
countered, in the attempt to establish facts of natural 
history with regard to birds of passage, that this beauti- 
ful little bird, the general favorite of the sportsman and 
the epicure, well known to all classes of men, and a vis- 
itant, in some one of its closely allied varieties, of every 
known nation, is still a mystery, as regards some of its 
habits, and continues to baffle the inquiries of the most 
learned and inquisitive ornithologists. 

Its habits, the nature of its food, and therefore the ne- 
cessities of its existence, render it an inhabitant of tem- 
perate climates, and of regions in which the moist and 
loamy soil, from which it derives its sustenance of small 
worms, insects, and the like, is not frozen dunng the pe- 
riod of its visitations so hard as to preclude its boring 
with its delicate and sensitive bill for its semi-aquatJc 
prey of worms and larvse. 



90 AMERICAN GAME. 

Still, as extreme cold prevents it from obtaining sub- 
sistence, extreme heat would appear to be still less con- 
genial to its tastes or temperament ; for, whereas it lingers 
in the north until autumnal frosts seal up the marshes 
and the soft stream margins against its j^robing bill, it 
flies from its winter quarters in the rice-fields of Carolina, 
and Georgia, and the farther morasses of Texas and 'New 
Mexico, the instant that opening spring admits of its 
return to the fresh meadows and pure rivulets of the 
north-east. 

The winter quarters of this bird, then, are fairly ascer- 
tained, ranging from Carolina southward until almost the 
northern limits of the Tropics ; thence, so soon as the 
blue-bird begins to pipe in the apple-tree, the shad to 
appear in the rivers, the willow-buds to turn yellow, and 
the frogs to croak and chirrup, with us to the northward, 
the snipe is seen everywhere, hurrying, according to the 
progress of the season, singly, in whisps often or twelve, 
or in huge flights, ever, ever, northwardly. In Mary- 
land, in Delaware, in southern Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, he is wont to appear from the 1st to the 20th of 
March ; in New York and New Jersey northward, from 
the 15tli of March to the 20tli of April, remaining for a 
longer or shorter period according to the steadiness of 
the weather, the state of the ground as regards wet or 
drought, and the geniality of the season. In mild, soft, 
temperate, moist seasons, with a jjrevalence of westerly 
weather, he will linger witli us into the lap of June; and 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 91 

in such seasons, more or less, lie woos liis mate, nidifi- 
cates and rears liis yoimg among ns, from tlie Haritan 
and the Passaic northward and eastward to the Great 
Lakes, and throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, probably, 
and Canada West, up far into the Arctic Circles. 

Still, those which breed with us in the United States, 
and even in the Canadas, are but as drops of water to an 
ocean, to those which rush on the untiring pinions moved 
by amatory instinct to the far breeding grounds of Lab- 
rador, Symsonia, and Boothia Felix, whither it is 6-?^^?- 
posed they resort to rear their young in hyperborean soli- 
tude, thence to reissue, in the summer and tlie earlier 
autumn, and re-populate our midland meadows. 

In the neighborhood of Amherstberg, Canada West, 
they appear very early ; often in February of mild sea- 
sons, always in March ; and there may breed, and remain 
until banished by severe cold. I shot one there myself 
last autumn, the last bird of the season, very late in !N^o- 
vember, I believe on the 28th or 29tli ; and with the 
plover, the Hudsonian godwit, and the Esquimaux 
curlew, they were seen there this sj)ring in the first days 
of March. 

Around Quebec, I have shot English snipe on the u^)- 
lands, in fallow fields and rushy pastures — for the grass 
in the morasses does not begin to shoot in those far north- 
ern latitudes, so as to aflford them shelter, until much 
later in the year — in the end of April and the beginning 
of May ; but they arrive there only by small scattered 



92 AMERICAN GAME. 

whisps, or single birds, tarry a few short clays, and flifc 
onward to their unknown destination. 

This, then, is their mystery — that in no known land 
are they perennial ; in no ascert>ained region — so far as I 
can learn — are they positively known to breed in the 
vast concourses which must breed somewhere, in order 
to supply the prodigious flights which issue yearly from 
the northern regions of three continents, Europe, 
America, and Asia, to fill the warmer countries, and to 
be slaughtered literally by myriads, season after season, 
without undergoing much if any visible diminution of 
numbers. 

Ever, in all places, in all countries, in all continents, 
which they visit in spring, they are seen pressing north- 
ward still, from March until May ; no one being able to 
Bay here ends their tide of emigration, this is their chosen 
resting-place. 

Their breeding season is from the middle of May to 
the beginning of July ; on the 4th of which month I 
have shot young birds, w^ith the pin-feathers undeveloped, 
as large as the parents — these birds having been hatched 
on the ground whereon I killed them. Indeed, it is my 
opinion, that all birds which tarry in our latitudes be- 
yond the 10th of May, either do breed with us, or would 
do so but for the persecution of the pot-hunter — all 
which intend to steer farther north having departed ere 
that time. 

About the 15th of July the returning hordes, young 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 93 

birds and old together, full grown and in fine condition, 
begin to reappear in tlie marshes of Quebec and its vicin- 
ity, which may be said to be tlie extremest northern point 
from which we have continuous and authentic annual 
information of their appearance. At that time the 
slaughter of the snipe on the marshes of Chateau Richer, 
and of the islands farther down the St. Lawrence, is pro- 
digious. There they linger until the frosts become so 
severe as to drive them from their feeding-grounds, 
which generally takes place early in September, from 
which time, throughout that month, all October, and a 
portion — more or less according to the season — of 'No- 
vember, and even December, every likely swamp, mo- 
rass, and feeding-ground of Canada West, of the western, 
midland, and eastern states, from which they are not 
persecuted and banished by the incessant banging of 
pot-hunters and idle village boys, swarms with them, in 
quantities sufficient to aiford sport to hundreds, and a 
delicacy lo thousands of our inhabitants, if they were 
protected from useless and unmeaning persecution, by 
which alone they are prevented from being as numerous 
among us as at any former period. 

For I am well assured, that — unlike the woodcock, 
which, breeding in our midst, and dwelling with us for 
months at a time, is annually slaughtered while breeding, 
hatching, or immature, and is thus in rapid progress 
towards extirpation — the snipe, when unmolested in its 
breeding-grounds, is not diminished in its numerical pro- 



94: AMEKICAN GAME. 

duction, but is rendered scarcer in thickly settled dis- 
tricts, nigh to large towns, by incessant harrassing, which 
drives it to remoter and securer feeding-grounds. 

I do not mean by this, however, to assert that the abo- 
lition of spring snipe-shooting would not be an advan- 
tage — on the contrary, I am convinced that it would ; 
although well assured that no such measure can be hoped 
at the hands of our legislators ; for, as the snipe ordina- 
rily lays four eggs, the destruction of each one of the 
breeders on their way northward, of course diminishes 
the stock of the coming season by five birds. 

So much for the times and places of the snipe's migra- 
tions. Of his appearance or characteristics — so Avell is 
he known — it is almost useless to speak ; it may, hew- 
ever, be well to observe that although commonly termed 
the English Snipe, our bird is a thorough native Ameri- 
can^ differing from the bird of Europe in being about 
one inch smaller every way, and in having two more 
feathers, sixteen instead of fourteen, in the tail. In 
other minute, but &t\\\ permanent^ and therefore charac- 
teristic distinctions, it differs from the Asiatic and An- 
tarctic snipes ; although in their rapid, zigzag flight and 
shrill squeak when flushed ; in their irregular soaring 
through the air in gloomy w^eather ; in their perpendic- 
ular towering and plumb descent, their drumming wath 
the wing-feathers, and bleating with the voice, during 
the breeding-season, all the species or varieties so closely 
resemble each other, that they are far more easily con- 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 05 

founded than distinguished by the unscientific sports- 
man. 

The American bird has, however, two or three habits, 
during early spring-shooting, which I have never ob- 
served in the European species, nor seen noticed in any 
work of natural history ; the first of these is frequenting 
underwood and bushy covert abounding in springs and 
intersected by cattle-tracks, and occasionally even high 
woods, during wild, stormy, and dark weather, especially 
when snow-squalls are driving ; and this is a habit of the 
bird meriting the attention of the sportsman, as in such 
weather, when he finds no birds on the open and unshel- 
tered marshes, he will do well to beat the neighboring 
underwoods, if any, and if not, the nearest swampy 
woodlands ; by doing w^hich he will oftentimes fill his 
bag when he despairs of any sport. The second habit is 
that of alighting, not unfrequently, on rail-fences, or 
stumps, and even on high trees, which I think I can 
safely assert that the European bird never does ; and the 
third is the utterance, when in the act of skimming over 
the meadows, after soaring, bleating, and drumming for 
an hour at a stretch in mid air, of " a sharp reiterated 
chatter, consisting of a quick, jarring repetition of the 
syllables, keJc-IceJc-keJc-JceJc-JceJc, many times in succession, 
with a rising and falling inflection, like that of a hen 
which has just laid an egg.^^"^ 

There is no Jack Snipe in America, though manyper- 

♦ " Frank Forrester's Field Sports of North America," vol. i. p. 161. 



96 AMERICAN GAME. 

sons ignorantly and obstinately assert the reverse ; the 
true Jack Snipe being a northern bird of Europe and 
Asia, visiting the milder climates during the hard 
weather. It is an exact counterpart of the English Snipe, 
only about one-half smaller ; it never utters any cry on 
rising, and rarely flies above one hundred yards, often 
dro23ping within fifty feet of the muzzle of a gun just 
discharged at it, although unwounded. The bird which 
is here confounded with it, is the Pectoral Sandpiper, a 
bird about one-third smaller than the snipe, of a lighter 
brown, with a short, arched bill, and a feeble quavering 
whistle. It is found indiscriminately on the sea-shore, 
and in upland marshes ; I have shot it from Lake Huron 
to the Penobscot, and the Capes of the Delaware ; it lies 
well before dogs, which will point it, and is a good bird 
on the table. It is known in Long Island as the " Mea« 
dow Snipe," and the " Short Neck" in 'New Jersey, and 
thence westward, as the "Fat Bird," or "Jack Snipe," 
indiscriminately. It is not a snipe at all, but a Sand- 
piper, Tringa Pectoralis. 

The only other true snipe ascertained to exist in Ame- 
rica, is the Ped-Breasted Snipe, Scolopax Novebora- 
censis^ better known as the " Dowitcher," an unmeaning 
name, adopted and persevered in by the Bay men, or as 
the " Quail Snipe." At Egg Harbor the gunners call it 
the " Brown-back." It is found only on the salt marshes, 
and is never hunted with dogs, but shot from ambush 
over decoys. 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 97 

It appears, then, that the coming and stay of the com- 
mon snipe in our districts, in spring, is very uncertain 
and dependent on the state and steadiness of the weather. 
Some seasons, they will stay for weeks on the moist, 
muddy flats among the young and succulent herbage, 
growing fat and lazy, lying well to the dog, and afford- 
ing great sport. Sometimes they will merely alight, feed, 
rest, and resume their flight, never giving the sportsman 
a chance even of knowing that they have been, and are 
gone, except by their dial kings and borings where they 
have fed. Again, at other seasons, they will lie singly, 
or in scattered whisps on the uplands, in fallow fields, 
even among stunted brushwood, lurking perdu all day, 
and resorting to the marshes by night, leaving the traces 
of their presence in multitudes, to perplex the sportsman, 
who, perhaps, beats the ground for them, day after day, 
only to find that they were, but are not. 

This variance in the habit of the snipe it is, which, 
makes him so hard a bird to kill ; for, although he is per- 
plexing from his rapid and twisting flight to a novice, I 
consider him, to a cool old hand, as easy a bird to kill 
as any that flies. The snipe invariably rises against or 
across wind, and in doing so hangs for an instant on the 
air before he can gather his way ; that instant is the time 
in which to shoot him, and that trick of rising against 
wind is his bane with the accomplished shot and sports- 
man, for by beating doion the wind, keeping his brace of 
dogs quartering the ground before him, across the loind, 



98 AMKRICAN GAME. 

SO that they will still have the air in their noses, he com- 
pels the bird to rise before him, and cross to the right on 
the left hand, affording him a clear and close shot, instead 
of whistling straight away up wind, dead ahead of him, 
exposing the smallest surface to his aim, and frequently 
getting off without a shot, as it w^ill constantly do, if the 
shooter beats up wind, even w^tli the best and steadiest 
dogs in the world. The hiach of sliooting snipe, as some 
people who can't do it choose to call it, is no other than 
the knack of shooting quick, shooting straight, and shoot- 
ing well ahead of cross shots — this done with a gun that 
will throw its charge close at forty to fifty yards, with 
If oz. of 1^0. 8 shot, equal measures of shot and of 
Brough's diamond-grain powder, will fetch three snipe 
out of every five, which is great work, in spite of what 
the cockneys say, who pick their shots, never firing at a 
hard bird, or one over twenty paces away, and then boast 
of killing twenty shots in succession. Yerbum sap. 

The great difference of the grounds to be beaten in dif- 
ferent weathers ; the difficulty in determining which 
ground to assign to which day ; the immense extent of 
country to be traversed, if birds are scarce or wild, or if 
there are many varieties of soil, covert, and feeding in 
one range, and the sportsman fail in his two or three first 
I eats in finding game, and therefore have to persevere 
till he do find them, these, and the hardness of the walk- 
ing in rotten quagmires and deep morasses, affording no 
sure foot-hold, and often knee-deep in water-— these it is 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 9^ 

which make successful snipe-shooting one of the greatest 
feats in the art, and the crack snipe-hnder and snipe- 
killer — for the two are one, or rather the second depends 
mainly on the lirst — one of the first, if not the first artist 
in the line. 

It is from this necessity of beating, oftentimes, very 
extensive tracts of land before finding birds, and there- 
fore beating very rapidly if you would find birds betimes, 
that I so greatly prefer and recommend the use ot very 
fast, very liighly-bred, and very far-ranging setters, to 
that of any pointer in the w^orld, for snipe-shooting in the 
open — apart from their great superiority over the pointer 
in hardihood, endurance of cold, powers of retrieving, 
beauty and good-nature. 

Of course, speaking of dogs, whether setter, pointer, 
dropper, or cocking-spaniel, it is understood that we 
speak of dogs of equal qualities of nose, staunchness to 
the point, and steadiness at coming to the charge the 
instant a shot is fired. ISTo dog which does not do all 
these things habitually, and of course, is worth the 
rope that should hang him ; and no man is worthy the 
name of a shot or a sportsman who cannot, and does not, 
keep his dogs, whether setters, pointers, or cockers, un- 
der such command that he can turn them to the right or 
left, bring them to heel, stop them, or down charge them, 
at two hundred yards distance if it be needfuL 

If these things, then, be equal, as they can be made 
equal, though I admit a setter to be more difiicultly kept 



100 AMERICAN GAME. 

in discipline than a pointer — the fastest setter yon can 
get, is the best dog for snipe-shooting ; his snperiorit}^, 
in other points, infinitely counterbalancing the greater 
trouble it requires to break and control him. I am well 
aware that it has been said, and that by authorities, 
that the best dog over which to shoot snipe, is an old, 
slow, broken-down, staunch pointer, who crawls along 
at a foot's pace, and never misses, overruns, or flushes a 
bird. 

And so, in two cases, he is ; but in one case, no dog is 
just as good as he is, and in the other the argument is 
one of incapacity to use what is best, and therefore is no 
argument. 

If birds are so thick on the grounds and so tame that 
you can fill your bag in walking over one or two acres at 
a foot's pace, a very slow pointer is better than fast set- 
ters — but no dog at all, your walking up the birds your- 
self, which you can do just as quickly as the dog can, is 
better than the slow pointer. Indeed, on very small 
grounds, very thickly stocked, it is by far the most kill- 
ing w^ay to use no dog, but to walk up the birds. 

If a man is so w^eak and infirm of purpose, or so igno- 
rant of the first principles of his art, as to be unable to 
control his setters, he must, I suppose, use a slow pointer ; 
but it cannot matter what dog such a man uses, he 
never can be a sportsman. 

If there be a hundred birds lying, and lying well on 
one acre of feeding-ground, the birds can be killed with- 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 101 

out a dog, or with a slow dog, as joii will ; any man who 
can pull a trigger must fill his bag. 

If there be a hundred birds scattered, wild, over five 
hundred acres of ground, where are you w^itli your slow 
dog, or your no dog? Just no where. While you are 
painfully picking up your three or four birds w^ith your 
slow pointer, your true sportsman, and slashing walker, 
with his racing up-head and down-stern setters, will have 
found fifty, and bagged twenty-five or thirty. 

There are ten days in a season when birds are wild 
and sparse, for one when they are congregated and lie 
hard ; and the argument comes to this, that when birds 
can be killed with ease, even without a dog at all, a slow 
pointer is the best ; when they are difficult to find, and 
hard to kill, even by a crack shot, the slow pointer is no 
where, and of no use, while the racing setters will fill 
the bag to a certainty. 

For my own part, I can say to a certainty, that I have 
had more sport, and killed more birds, by many, many 
times, when birds have been widely scattered, and diffi- 
cult to find, and when I have walked half or a quarter of 
a mile between every shot fired, than I ever have when 
birds have lain close, and jumped up at every pace under 
my feet; and for a simple reason, that the places in 
wdiich birds so rise and lie are rare and of small extent, 
and the days on which they do so few and far apart. 

Therefore I say, friend — for all true sportsmen I hold 
friends — choose well thy day, w^hen the air is soft and 



102 AMERICA.N GAME. 

genial, the wind south-westerly, the meadows green with 
succulent and tender grasses, and moist with the deposit 
of subsiding waters — select thy grounds carefully; in 
such a time as I have named, the wide and open marsh 
meadows ; but if the wind be from the eastward, cold, 
squally and snow laden, then try the bushy, briery brakes, 
where cattle poach the soil, and the marsh waters creep, 
or the verge of the meadows, under the lea of the maple 
swamp, or at the worst the very grounds where you would 
beat for woodcock in July — begin from the farthest wind- 
ward point of thy beat, casting thy brace of setters oiF 
from thy heel, to the right and left, and so often as they 
have diverged one hundred yards, turning them with a 
whistle and a wave of the hand, so that they shall cross 
continually before thy face, down wind of thee, at some 
thirty paces distant ; and so persevere — if birds be plenty 
and lie well, walking not to exceed two miles the hour ; 
if they be rare and wild, four miles, or by 'r lady ! five, 
if thou may est compass it. If one dog stand, while the 
other's back is turned, whistle that he shall turn his head, 
then hold thy hand aloft, with one quiet " toJio ! " but no 
shouting ; if he be broke, he shall stand like a carved 
stone. Then walk up to the point leisurely, be sure that 
thou go dovm wind., making a circuit if needs be, with thy 
gun at half-cock, the ball of thy thumb on the hammer, 
and the nail of thy forefinger inside the guard, but not 
upon the trigger. When the bird rises, cock your gun^ 
and down him ! If thy dogs do their devoir, they shall 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 103 

drop to the charge unbidden ; if they do not, raise thy 
hand with an imperious gesture, and cry coolly and 
calmly, "Down charge!" but however ill they behave, 
nay, even if they run in and eat thy bird, move not till 
thy gun is loaded; then calmly walk up to them, drag 
them, pitilessly scourging them all the way, to the place 
where they should have charged, and rate them in the 
best of thy dog-language. I say " scourging them jpiti- 
lessly^'' because that is in truth the merciful course ; for 
so one or two whippings will suffice, instead of constant 
small chastisements and irritation, which spoil a dog's 
temper and break his spirit, without conquering his ob- 
stinacy, or gaining the ascendancy over him. 

If, on the contrary, they charge as decent dogs should 
and do charge, so soon as thy gun be loaded, lift them, 
with a " Hold up, good lads ! " and cast them gently on- 
ward, checking them with a " Steady, dogs ! " if they 
show disposition to be rash, until they point the dead 
bird, if killed, or draw on him, if running. Then, with a 
" Toho ! Steady ! " walk to their point ; pick up the bird 
under their noses, praising them the while, or bid them 
" Fetch ! " according to the circumstances of the case ; 
but if they retrieve the bird without pointing him, or 
even after pointing him, until told to "fetch," let chas- 
tisement not hide her head. 

This, rest assured, friend, is the way to do it. 

For the rest, whether thou wear fen-boots, or shoes and 
trowsers, or, as I use, by deliberate preference, arch- 



104 THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 

boots, corduroy shorts, and leggins, suit thine own fancy ; 
but let thy shooting- jacket be roomy on the chest and 
shouldei*s, and well supplied with ample pockets. Let 
thy gun be — for my choice — of 31 inches, 12 or 14 gauge, 
7f to 8 pounds. E"ow, in using the gun there are three 
principal points to be considered, so that the art may be 
properly divided into three heads : How to use the gun 
safely — that is, with the least possible danger to yourself 
and others ; how to use it effectively — that is, with the 
greatest power of bringing down, under all circum- 
stances, the object at which it is directed ; how to use it 
serviceably — that is, so that it shall be always ready for 
service, so that it shall suffer the least from being con- 
stantly used. Stick in the seam of thy waistcoat a strong 
darning-needle, headed with sealing-wax, it is the only true 
and responsible gun-picker; and so, good sport to thee, 
and health and temper to enjoy it ! — as good sport, gentle 
reader, as I trust myself to enjoy this coming week of 
April, the rain-gods and the river-gods permitting, and 
the nymphs remembering us, as their long time adorer, 
in their kind orisons. 

The American Snipe, established by Wilson as a dis- 
tinct species, is eleven inches long, bill inclusive, and sev- 
enteen from tip to tip. Bill fluted, two and a half inches 
long, the upper mandible the longest, terminating in a 
highly sensitive nob, brown, tipped with black. The 
croAvn of the head black, bisected lengthwise and bor- 



THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 105 

dered by three yellowish-white streaks. Above the eye 
a dusky-brown line ; neck and upper breast, pale dusky 
brown, speckled with black and white ; chin dirty white. 
Back black, bordered with two white lines. Scapulars 
velvety black, richly marbled with ferruginous, and 
broadly edged exteriorly with white. "Wings dusky, 
all the feathers tipped with white, qnills brown, exterior 
quills edged with white. Upper tail coverts, ferruginous, 
tipped with whitish and spotted w^ith black. Tail black, 
ended with a chestnut bar, tipped with wdiite. Belly pure 
white ; flanks white with dusky bars. Thighs, vent, and 
under-tail coverts white. Legs and feet pale green. 

It is worthy of remark that the American Snipe, 
though neither webbed nor semipalmated, swims freely, 
a fact which is, I believe, mentioned by no naturalist. 

On the first occasion which made me acquainted with 

this fact, I was standing on the verge of a narrow brook, 

of some six or eight feet over, in the act of loading both 

barrels of my gun, which I had just discharged, when 

a snipe flushed by another of my party, flew over my 

head, and pitched on an open spot of muddy soil, within 

six feet of me, evidently not observing me, as I stood 

motionless. I watched its actions and movements, for 

a few seconds, as it pruned its rufiled feathers, walked 

daintily about, picked up a worm or tw^o, and finally, 

to my great surprise, took to the water, swam cleverly 

across the brook and ensconced itself in a tuft of rushes, 

whence I shortly afterwards dislodged and shot it. 
6*' 



106 AMERICAN GAME. 

On the second occasion, I was sliooting on the Chat- 
ham meadows, in company with Mr. Nicholls. late of 
II. M. 82 Eeg't. The birds were wild, the day windy, 
and the ground too wet for birds to lie well. At last we 
marked three down together in a small meadow, bor- 
dered by a very broad fen ditch of eighteen or twenty 
feet, and half that depth with clean cut banks, nearly 
perpendicular. There was nearly no covert on the 
meadow. 

Our setters drew up carefully — stood perfectly dead 
when we saw them drop, looked wildly about for a mo- 
ment, much puzzled at seeing nothing rise, then drew 
on slowly and foot by foot, to the edge of the broad 
dyke, where they again stood steadily. When we 
reached the bank, the three birds rose, out of shot, in 
the bare marsh beyond. In all they had run about three 
hundred yards, besides swimming the brook. Previous 
to seeing that, I should have fancied the birds had 
taken wing, and beaten no further than to the water- 
course. Now I should certainly cross it, and try. before 
abandoning the game, whether the dogs could not make 
them out on the farther bank. 

To this I annex an account of a veritable day's sport, 
which occurred precisely as it is here set down, to the 
smallest incident, to the author, while shooting over a 
superb brace of setters, purchased of that well-known 
sportsman, "Dinks" of Amherstburgh, in company with 
a crack shot and boon companion, now depai ted. 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. 107 

The scene was Short's Landing, in the State of Dela- 
ware, and on the noble river of the same name. The 
place "Eobinson's tavern" — the time daybreak, on as 
wild an April morning as ever woke in mingled hail- 
squalls and sunshine. 

Spring Snipe-S hooting. 

" If you please, sir, it's taime to get oop," said a cheer- 
ful voice, with a most marvelous north-country burr, at 
the best bed-room door of a small way-side tavern, in 
the little State of Delaware, not many miles distant 
from the noble river whence it derives its name. 

" The deuce it is ! " replied the lodger, in fine manly 
ringing tones, although the speaker was but just awak- 
ened. " I did not think that I had been in bed ten min- 
utes. What time is it, Timothy, and how does the day 
look?" 

" T' clock's run doon ; and it beant day," replied 
Harry Archer's famous body servant, who was in one of 
his literal moods, that morning, busying himself, as lie 
spoke, in stropping his master's razors by the apology 
for a light afforded by the home-made dip. 

" Confound you, man, when will it be day then, and 
how does the morning frame f "^^ answered his master, 

* To " frame," in Yorkshire, signifies " to promise," " to give token 
of becoming," as " the puppy /n*me5 to be a good one." "The day 
frames to be fine." 



108 AMERICAN GAME. 

himself adopting the Yorkshire ]3hraseology, half in 
fun, half in irritation, to meet his henchman's compre- 
hension. 

" T' sun'll he oop iv half an hoor, and t'morn frames 
vary hadly." 

*' What — is it wet ? are we going to have a rainy day ? " 

" Nay ! it's not that weet ; nor it beant going to ra-ain, 
ay reckon. But it blaws raiglit doon, and t' sky's as 
red as blude amaist i' t' east. It'll tak' walking the day, 
and shuting too, if think'st to mak' a bag." 

" Easterly wind, Tim ? " 

"Norwest," answered the varlet. "E'oo, then, t' 
razors is ready and t' hot wather; and t' breakfast, 
sooch as 't is, it'll ready i' faive minutes. T' other gen- 
tleman, he's been doon i' t' kitchen, boiling t' eggs hard 
mair nor a quarter of an hoor." 

'' Hurrah ! then, away w4th you ; and tell him I'll be 
with him before they are hard." 

I^or was the boast an empty one, or unfulfilled, for 
scarcely ten minutes had elapsed, before the rickety 
staircase clattered beneath the ponderous hob-nailed 
half-boots of the sportsman, and while his companion 
was still superintending the preparation of the eggs 
which were to furnish their luncheon, Harry entered 
the breakfast room in full fig, corduroy breeches, leather 
leggins, broad-skirted, many-pocketed shooting coat, and 
wide-leaved felt hat. 

" The t(ip of the morning to you, Charley ; " said he. 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. 109 

as lie came in, addressing the Baltimorean, who was 
booted to the hip, ready for action. 

" The bottom of the night, rather ; " replied Charley, 
laughing. " It's an awful state of society, when a fel- 
low's dragged out of bed by an insane Yorkshireman, 
two hours before daybreak, and made to get into his 
boots, whether or no." 

"It must have been something of a job to get into 
yours, I should think ; but I'll tell you what, if we get 
the birds into a bit of tussocky bog, where we shall find 
them, if we find them anywhere to-day, you'll get out 
of them, I fancy, a plaguy deal quicker than you 
got in ; for they'll stick fast as sure as mud's mud — and 
the mud there, or clay, rather, is better than any boot- 
jack." 

" The Lord's will be done — " answered the other ; 
" at all events, I shall keep dry ten minutes longer than 
you." 

" True, O king ! :N'ow, Timothy, take half that loaf of 
rye bread, cut it into chunks, and give the dogs their 
breakfast." 

" Which dogs are you going to take to-day, Harry ? " 

" ' Dinks ' and ' Bob ' — the orange and white, and the 
black and white Russian." 

"Dinks is the greatest beauty, and Bob the greatest 
brute I ever set my eyes upon." 

" If you don't change your tune before night, you may 
eat me. Any one can see that Dinks is by far the hand- 



110 AMEKICAN GAME. 

eomer, but Bob is the very best dog I ever pulled a trig- 
ger over in my life. That's all." 

" But I thought you said they had never seen snipe ? " 

^'I said they had never been hunted upon snipe, or 
allowed to point them. English-broke setters, are very 
apt to be whipped off snipe, for it's a horrid bore in 
moor-shooting, to toil half a mile or better up hill to a 
steady point, and then instead of a pack of grouse, to 
flush what Colquhoun calls a ' twiddling snipe.' These 
dogs were broke in England, and re-broke in Canada 
West." 

" And are there no snipe there ? " 

" So many, and they lie so hard, that dogs are useless. 
On the regular snipe grounds, they w^alk them up." 

" And how do you expect these dogs to point snipe 
now ? " 

*' I do not expect them to point snipe at first ; but as 
soon as they find we are shooting them, they'll point 
them fast enough, I promise you." 

"You think so?" 

" 1^0. I know so. I would bet a hundred to five, if 
I were a betting man, that before night they point, and 
back, and find dead too, on snipe as steadily as ever you 
saw dogs." 

" May be so ; but it's new to me. Do you mean to 
say that good dogs will stand anything ? " 

" I mean to say that good dogs can be broke to stand 
on aiivthin<r, or — nothinfc." 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. Ill 

" On anythirig ! on any game you mean." 

'^ I mean, precisely, what I say — on anything. And 
that is the reason why I checked you for shooting a 
meadow-lark over them the other day, and why I am so 
particular as to the ' who ' I take out with me. If small 
birds are killed indiscriminately with game, over dogs, 
before many days you will have as dead points at larks 
and broAvn thrushes, as at quail and ruffed grouse. If a 
man shoots j)igeons, larks, and black-birds, or even 
reed-birds, for that matter, over my setters, he may do 
so once, but he will have no second chance, I promise 
you." 

" I expect to see these dogs of yours paragons. They 
ought to be such, by all the trouble you take with them. 
I know no one who insists so much on doing everything 
ship shape." 

" They are good dogs. The best broke dogs, to my 
mind, that I have seen in this country ; but this is no 
lair opportuity to judge them. Their forte is high fast 
ranging for cpiail ; and they are going to be tried to-day, 
in ground, and upon game, such as they never have 
seen. But come ; you seem to have finished that abomi- 
nable coffee, so we had better get under way at once. 
It is a wild, bad morning, and the birds will scarcely 
lie ; and if we want to make anything like a bag, we 
shall have to fag hard for it." 

Thereupon, without further words, the two friends 
took up their guns and got under way ; Timothy follow- 



112 AMERICAN GAME. 

ing, game-bag on slioulder, and cudgel in hand, the two 
setters, just released from the chain, gambolling about 
in the highest spirits and most admirable condition, as 
was evinced by the moist coolness of their jet-black 
noses, and the silky gloss of their deeply feathered 
coats. 

" There is a piece of wild meadow here, Charley," 
said Archer, pointing across a pair of bars to the right, 
** which, before the banks w^ere broke, and the tide got in, 
used to be the first in the country for spring shooting. 
There are a good many birds in it now, I dare say, for it 
has got plenty of covert, and they will seek covert in such 
a wind as this." 

" Let us try it, tlien, if you say so." 

" It is most infernal walking, but it won't do to stick 
at trifles. So here goes," and suiting the action to the 
word, he strode across the fence, and at the first step 
was mid-leg deep in a soft rust-colored sludge, half 
semi-liquid mud and half semi-decomposed vegetable 
matter. A few floundering strides through the Sirbo- 
nian bog, brought them to drier, if not sounder ground, 
which was, in truth, even harder walking than before, 
as the soil was here so tenacious that it was diflicult to 
draw the leg out of the mire, into which it sunk ankle 
deep. In places, this was covered by high reeds, stand- 
ing Avide apart, with splashes of shallow water covering 
the surface, and here the bottom was harder ; in others, 
a rank, short, rushy grass, which had probably been 



BNIPE-SHOOTmG. 113 

burnt over, some two years before, grew thick and mat- 
ted on the loose rotten soil, throngli which, every few 
3^ards asunder, soaked little rills of nearly stagnant 
water, indicated more by the blackness and ooziness of 
their muddy channels, than by any visible stream or 
current. 

The setters looked at one another wistfully, and then 
at their master, as if they wondered what the deuce they 
were expected to do in such ground as that, and when 
at length in obedience to his " hold up, good lads ! " and 
the wafture of his hand to the right and left, they broke 
oif, and began to quarter their ground steadily and 
beautifully, crossing each other in regular diagonal 
lines ; they did not beat at their usual dashing gallop, 
heads up and sterns down, as they would have done, 
had they been beating for quail, but felt their way, as it 
were, gingerly and fearfully, keeping at a trot, though 
they whipped their flanks aU the time with their 
feathery sterns, and often putting down their noses, as 
if to seek for some strange trail or scent. 

''Upon my life! Harry," said his friend, "if it were 
not impossible, I should believe that those dogs know as 
well as we do, that they are after some game to which 
they are unaccustomed to day." 

" Know it ! of course they know it ! ^Whj, if we had 
been upon stubbles, they would have ranged the whole 
of this piece, before this time. Ha ! Bob — toho ! " he 
exclaimed, as a snipe sprung directly under the black 



IM AMERICAN GAME. 

dog's nose, who went on without taking the least notice 
either to stand or to chase — " Toho ! " and at the word, 
the staunch brutes both came to a stand, irresolute of 
course, and uncertain, as a stand always must be, when 
dogs do not know what they are upon, but still, without 
a forward motion, after the word met their ears. But, 
even as he shouted, Harry pitched up his gun to his eye, 
literally drawing the trigger as it rose, so that it was 
discharged the instant the butt struck his shoulder — for 
the bird had sprung wild, at least twenty yards off, in 
the first instance, and the wind blowing very fresh, in 
cold squalls, had gone away, as if ' the devil drove,' 
directly in the teeth of the north-wester, zigzaging it with 
all his wings, and reiterating his sharp squeak, as if in 
triumph. But there was a quick eye, and nimble finger 
behind, and a gun, that if held straight, was wont to tell 
a tale ; and when he had got some five-and-forty yards 
away, the strength of the charge struck him full, and 
sent him, doubled up like a rag, some six yards further 
forward. At the report, as is very often the case, in 
snipe shooting, a second bird, which would have skulked 
and allowed them to pass him, jumped up within three 
feet of Archer's toe, and wheeling half round him to 
get the wind, was cut down, completely riddled, before 
he had flown ten paces. At the second sliot, the mead- 
ow seemed literally alive with birds, some thirty or 
forty rising one by one, between the young men and the 
dogs, most of them in front of the Baltimorean, and 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. 115 

going away, scaij^e, scaiiye, scaipe, scaipe^ as wlio should 
say, " deuce take the hindmost," to the north-westward, 
ever as they flew and squeaked, calling up fresh legions 
over the wide flat, until there must have been above a 
hundred snipe in the air at once. 

At these, Charley did his work well, keeling a brace 
over, very neatly, one of which fell w^ithin a yard of 
Bob's nose, who had gone down to charge without being 
bidden, the moment the report of the first shot followed 
the flash. The steady dog snufied a little, and wagged 
his tail, but did not stir, though to increase the tempta- 
tion, the snipe, which was only wing-tipped, after turn- 
ing some twenty consecutive summersaults under his nose, 
made several ineffectual efforts to rise, springing four or 
fiYQ feet into the air, and screaming " scaijpe^'' a qui niieux. 

"Wonderfully steady, indeed!" said Charley, in pro- 
found admiration — " wonderfully steady. But that was a 
slashing shot of yours, that first one, Harry." 

" Yes ! it was some^ as Bill Porter would say. I 
wanted to kill that chap for the dog's sake, and Avould 
not have missed him for a trifle. I had no idea there 
were such a lot of them lying all around us. I never 
saw so many birds on the ground in my life ; if it were 
a still, warm day, we should have rare sport. As it is, 
we will make out a bag. All this has turned out capi- 
tally. I would not be surprised, if you will give me five 
minutes to work the dogs after my own fashion, to see 
them stand the next bird, after we have retrieved these." 



116 A^IERICAN GAME. 

" Take your own time — I am ready. At all events, I 
will say now that I never saw better-broke, or steadier 
dogs." 

" 'Now then, hold up, good lads," cried Harry, waving 
his hand to the dogs with a low whistle, and walking np 
to them, he encouraged them, and cheered tliem, as he 
made them find each one of the four dead birds, and 
when found, let them scent and snuffle them as much as 
they chose, and even mouth them gently. After that, he 
laid them at a short distance before their noses, and cry- 
ing " toho ! " made them stand and back, several times in 
succession. After this, lie pocketed the birds, apologiz- 
ing to his friend, as he came up, for having kept him 
waiting. 

"No need for an apology, Harry," said he; "on the 
contrary, I am much obliged, for, like the dogs, I too 
have been taking my lesson." 

" Well, forward, hold up lads ! " and away they went 
again, the dogs gathering courage as they drcAv, and 
beating more boldly and carrying more head, as they 
ranged forward, but still working much slower, and 
more warily than they would have done on (|uail. For 
a while they found nothing, for all the birds had scat- 
tered far and near, at the first disturbance of the feeding 
ground. After a while, however, at the edge of some 
tall flags in good springy feeding ground, Eob, who was 
a little to the right, in front of Charley, dropped from 
his canter into a slow trot, straightened his neck and 



SNIPE-SHOOTING. 



117 



stern, and drew on in a straight line. " Look out, there 
is a bird there ! " 

Scaijye ! scaijpe ! close under the dog's nose he started, 
and as he started, but not till then, Bob stood stiff. The 
bird fell to Charley's shot, was recovered, bagged, 
and on they went, rejoicing. Five shots and no bird 
missed. 

The next rise was to Archer. Two snap shots, right 
and left, birds which rose wide of the dogs. The hrst 
fell clean killed — the second, just grazed by the shot, 
skated off, and pitched three hundred yards off. The 
dead bird. Dinks pointed dead, in fine style, Bob back- 
ing him. And twenty minutes after, the order was re- 
versed. Bob finding the hurt bird, beautifully, and Dinks 
backing eighty yards off. That bird took another shot, 
but he came to bag. After that, all day long, the green 
dogs worked like old hands, on their new game ; before 
afternoon, they were racing heads up and sterns down, 
in their old fashion, and yet neither of them flushed 
another bird all that day. Despite wind and weather, 
the friends filled a heavy bag, and as they sipped their 
peach brandy by the fireside in the evening, Charley 
. said, laughing :— " Well, Harry Archer, coute qu'il coute, 
I will never doubt again, that well-broke dogs can be 
made to point anything, or — nothing ! " 

" And, is Bob a brute now ? " 

"Dinks is the beauty, but Bob is the best; and that is 



118 AMERICAN GAME. 

not saying a little, for, on the whole, they are the very 
best brace I have ever seen together." 

"I thought that you would say so — and you have 
had—" 

"A right good lesson on dog-breaking, so good-night." 



THE STRIPED BASS. 

Ldbrax Lineatits. 

THE KOCK FISH OF THE DELAWARE AND SOUTHWARD. 

This noble and sporting iisli, which is pecuHar to the 
continent of Korth America, was first, I believe, distin- 
guished and defined by the late learned Dr. Mitchell, 
of !N"ew York, though included by him in the di\asion 
Perea^ in lieu of Labrax^ to which it has since been 
more correctly attributed. 

Dr. Smith, in his " Fishes of Massachusetts," has se- 
verely censured Dr. Mitchell for his distinguishing this 
fish, and attaching to it his own name — pronouncing it to 
" be a common table fish, known from time immemorial 
all over Europe." Dr. Smith, however, not Dr. Mitchell, 
is the person in error ; as the Striped Bass, Lah^ax Line- 
atus. is a purely American fish, entirely distinct from the 
common European Bass, Ldbrax Lupus, which very 
rarely leaves the salt water, preferring to spawn in the 
sea bays, rather than to run up fresh streams or rivers, 



120 AMERICAN GAME. 

tliongh it is said to have been taken in the Tiber, between 
the two bridges, by the ancient Eomans.* 

There is said to be a variety of this fish found in the 
St. Lawrence, which is described as wanting the regular 
distinctive lines of the Striped Bass, and is said to assume 
a more spotty coloring ; the spots, however, running in 
regular lines, five above and five below the lateral line, 
and somewhat resembling ancient church music, whence 
it has been named by Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, who has 
done much for Canadian Icthyology, Labrax Notatus. 
The Striped Bass does not, it appears, run up the St. 
Lawrence so far as Quebec ; at least it is so stated by Dr. 
Richardson, in his great work on Northern Zoology ; but 
is commonly found, according to my friend, Mr. Pesley, 
the accomplished fisherman and historian of those w^aters, 
in all the rivers of l^ew Brunswick, which debouche 
into the Gulf, where they afford fine sport with the large 
scarlet Ibis fly, used for salmon-trout, wdth the smelt 
as a trolling-bait, and with the clam, or a piece of lob- 
ster — the latter a bait which I have never known to be 
used in our waters, though from its similarity to crab, 
which is in great request here at some seasons, its excel- 
lence need not be doubted. 

* nistoire des Poissons, cited by Ricliardson, Fauna Borcali Amen- 
cana, I should, liowever, entertain some doubt, if tlie identity of the 
fisli depends merely on the identity of the classic name, Lupus, with 
the modern name — since the Latin Lupus is equally rendered Pike, 
which is found in those waters. 



THE STKIPED BASS. 121 

So fiir soutliward as the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, 
they are found in abundance and of Large size ; and the 
Falls of the Potomac is a much frequented spot for tak- 
ing them. It is stated in "The American Angler's 
Guide," that they are found also in the rivers and bays 
of Florida. Such may be the case, though I have not 
heard them named as southern fish, even so far as 
Charleston Bay, to which Tautog have been recently intro- 
duced, by friends of mine from that region of the United 
States, while I have the sanction of that distinguished Ic- 
thologist, the late Mr. Dunbar, of New Orleans, for believ- 
ing that few if any, of our northern species are common to 
the southern waters, it being his decided opinion that the 
Sheeps-head of the Gulf is a distinct fish from that of the 
Atlantic coasts. 

The Striped Bass is taken of all sizes, from a few 
ounces up to seventy or eighty pounds, which may be set 
down as his maximum weio-ht. He is of the order Acan- 
thopterygii, or thorny-finned fishes, having one or more 
hard bony spines in advance of each of the soft-rayed fins. 
Its gill-rays are seven in number ; its dorsal fins consist 
first of eight spines, second of one spine, thirteen soft 
rays ; the pectorals of sixteen soft rays ; the ventral s of 
one spine, five soft rays ; the anal of three spines, twelve 
soft rays ; and the caudal of seventeen rays : the opercu- 
lum serrated, suboperculum has two spines, partly con- 
cealed by the membranes, no scales on the opercula. 
The lateral line of the fish is nearly straight. It is 



122 THE AMERICAN GAME. 

covei'ed with large scales of a metallic or nacrous lustre^ 
varying from reddish brown, with coerular and greenish 
reflections on the back, to the brightest silver on the 
belly. It has eight, or sometimes nine longitudinal lines, 
the fourth of which corresponds with the lateral line, 
the first four running through the whole length of the 
fish, the others becoming fainter and gradually dying 
away, as they extend towards the tail. He is a severe fish 
of prey and very voracious, and is accordingly equipped 
with a very powerful system of teeth, and his tongue is 
rough, like a file, w^th innumerable rows of small thorn- 
like teeth. Of all species, wdiich may properly be called 
sea-fish, the Striped Bass is, perhaps, that which most 
efiects fresh waters, for at an early season in the spring, 
so soon as, or almost before they are clear of ice, he 
begins to run up the rivers in pursuit of the smelt, to 
which he is a cruel enemy and persecutor, and of the shad, 
which he follows assiduously to their spawming places, 
making sad havoc with the roe of the latter. 

Either of these, therefore — the smelt or spearling, or 
any very white and glistening fish, or even a piece of 
polished pearl or tin as a trolling bait, or in squidding 
with a hand line — and the shad roe, potted and salted so 
as to preserve it, and attached to the hook with a needle- 
full of yellow silk, as a bottom bait, in rapid scours over 
gravelly ground, will be found exceedingly fatal baits. 
It is w^orthy of remark, however, that except in the 
spring season, and in rivers up wdiich shad and smelt 



tup: stkiped bass. 123 

are known to run, or on surf beaches, and in sea bays, it 
will be worse than useless to use either, especially the 
latter. 

In surfs, striped Bass will take the artificial squid, 
mistaking it for the Spearling, Athernia Menidia, the 
Sand-lance, or other small fry on w^hich they feed; and 
in tide ways, such as Hell-gate and the numerous pas- 
sages in that vicinity, they are frequently taken in great 
immbers, and of very large size, with that hideous ma- 
rine reptile, the living squid. 

In the early spring, and in general water, shrimp are 
probably the most killing bait, shad roe excepted, for 
rivers frequented by that fish. When crabs begin to 
shed they may be used indiscriminately with shrimp ; 
the latter to be fished with from one to three feet from 
the bottom, with a float and light sliding sinker. In the 
early autumn, crab on the bottom is preferred by many 
anglers ; and in some water the soft clam is very success- 
ful; but in swift streams, where the water is fresh, no 
bait, to my fancy, equals any bright, glittering fish, 
spearling, minnow, killy-fish, what you will, at the end 
of a hundred yards of clever trolling-line, with a bottom 
of good, round single gut, two swivels, a ]N"o. 1 Limerick 
through the tail, and a small perch hook through the 
lip, and a skilful hand to keep him glancing through the 
ripples, life-like, till a ten-pounder strikes him with an 
arrowy rush, and whistles away some seventy yards of 
line ofl:' your ringing click-reel, before you know what 



124 AMERICAN GAME. 

3^oii're about — for lie is a deuce of a run-awaj, is your 
ten -pound Bass, wlieii the barbed hook is in his jaws. 

He has not so much resource as the Sahnon, does not 
often throw himself off tlie surface water, or strive to fall 
on the tightened line and break it ; neither have I seen 
him run in often, if ever, upon the angler, or sulk at the 
bottom. But I think his first rush, if anything, is stronger, 
and I am sure it is longer, than that of an equal salmon. 
He will fight hard, for his time ; but his time, providing 
you keep a taught hand on him, make him work for 
every inch of line, and mind not to let him smash you, 
either against rocks on the bottom, or against piles or 
stumps, the neighborhood of which he loves, and around 
which he is sure to twist you if you let him, will not 
be so long by twenty minutes, as a ten-pounder Salmon 
on a fly, well j)layed, with good tackle — without if you 
have not a chance — and twelve minutes should have him 
dead-beat, and half-drowned, w^th the gafi" in his glitter- 
ing sides. 

Fly-fishing is not certain for Bass ; when they are in 
the humor to take, however, they give fine sport ; and in 
a fine spring morning, with a dark rufile on the water, it 
is worth the while trying. A salmon rod will be re- 
quired for this sport, with a reel, of course ; a single gut 
bottom, and any large, gaudy lake-fiy ; but none is, I 
think so killing as that made by the Conroys, especially 
for the Black Bass of the lakes Gristes Nigricans^ an 
entirely difierent fish, ])ecuHar to the St. Lawrence 



THE STKirED BASS. 125 

basin, but equally killing for tliis liis congener. It lias 
four large wings, two of the Scarlet Ibis, and two of the 
Silver Pheasant, wdth a scarlet chenil body. On the St. 
Lawrence it is sure death. 

Of squidding at night with hand-lines as thick as your 
little finger, and a live squid of a pound's weight at the 
end of it, I speak not ; for, although in the Harlem 
River, in little Hell-gate, and about Hog Island, the fifty 
and sixty pounders are taken in that fashion, it is much 
harder w^ork than fine sport ; and, as is the case, I think, 
with most game fish, the largest neither give the most 
sport to the fisherman on the hook, nor to the epicure on 
the board. The gamest fish for the one, and the most 
delicate for the other, is the fellow that runs from seven 
or, by 'r lady, five to ten pounds weight, and he w^ill work 
you on the line, or please you on the platter. 

Of that size, boil him, and serve him with anchovy or 
shrimp sauce and the squeeze of a lemon ; or roast him, 
stuiied with bread-crumbs, suet, sweet herbs, lemon peel, 
and oysters, and basted with anchovy-butter, and if you 
don't say he's good, you may take my best rod and line. 

If he's a little fellow, score his sides, pepper and butter 
him, and boil him — or, if you've a lot of them, with a 
bunch or two of silver Passaic eels, pork, onions, pota- 
toes, oysters, etc., cut them in chunks, and make a 
chowder of them, with the oysters on toj), and don't 
forget to throw in a j)int of dry champagne wdien it boils 
up, or to think of Frank Forester, after the first plateful. 

After the striped Bass has had his own fun, w^ith the 



1^0 AMERICAN GAME. 

smelt and sliad-roe in the spring, lie disappears from 
among ns for a time, having run up nearly to the head- 
waters of his breeding streams, where he may deposit 
his ova in the clear, cold aerated waters, running limpid 
over yellow sands and bright pebbles, which are the best 
suited to the reproduction of his species. 

Soon after he has performed this duty, he returns, far 
less reduced, I know not wherefore, by the act of spawn- 
ing, than other anadromous fishes; and, thereafter^ 
during the hot months of midsummer, and the earlier 
part of autumn, he is to be found in the estuaries, and 
the silver flashing surges of our outer beaches, where he 
is taken in great abundance by the amphibious population 
of those regions, with the squid and hand line. 

Later in the autumn, he again rushes up the rivers, 
partly in pursuit of his prey, and partly, it is supposed, 
from dislike to the tumultuous seas, produced by the 
winter storms ; since it cannot be, as was once imagined, 
in avoidance of cold that he winters in fresh water, for 
it is ascertained that salt water maintains the hierhest 
temperature. In the rivers, however, it is, or rather in 
the lagoons and shallow bays at their mouth, that he 
passes the cold season, lying in a half torpid state on the 
mud at the bottom ; nor even here is he safe, at least in 
northern regions, for Mr. Perley states that he is easily 
distinguished in the shallow waters, through the clear, 
newly-formed ice, which is speedily cut through, and 
friend Labrax fished up in scoop nets by the Micmacs and 
Milicetes, no slight addition to their frugal winter fare. 



V. 
MAY. 

it ^mermiu ^xmk Croat. 

Salino Fontinalis. 

NOETH AMERICA; LABEADOK TO THE PACIFIC. 



C|{ ^nut (SffOSt 



Anas Bernida, 



THE BROOK TROUT. 

Sahno Fontinalis. 

This meny montli of May is the month of all others 
dear prescript! velj to the trout-fisher. In England, it has 
been for centuries admitted the sweetest and tlie fairest 
month of spring ; the month " where sweets compacted 
lie, the union of the earth and sky." Poets have sung 
it, and traditions hallowed it ; and, from the old day, 
when the hoary druids culled with their golden hooks 
the sacred mistletoe, and the young maidens were astir 
before the morning star, to gather maydew in the 
flowery meadows, even to this hard, real, unideal nine- 
teenth century, the month of May has a character of its 
own, not with young lovers only, but with the world in 
general, different from that of any other of tlie twelve 
changeful cycles, and differently hailed of men. 

In England, as I have said, it is the sweetest, with us 
in America it is the first^ I had almost said the only 
month of spring. For, in our western hemisphere, the 
winter hangs so heavily, and lingers so late into the 



6 



130 AMEKICAN GAME. 

lap of summer, that in good truth, in some years, we 
have no spring at all ; and in the most favorable seasons^ 
the fierce and cutting north-easters of March, with their 
whirling snow-drifts, their pelting hail-stones, and their 
incessant scud of inky storm-clouds, render it the most 
hateful month of all the twelve, and to invalids the most 
terrible and fata]. April succeeds ; and if one genial 
day, with a soft breeze from the southward or south- 
westward, and a glimpse or two of watery sunshine, call 
the willow-buds to bursting, and a few, the earliest, 
meadow-blooms to blowing; waken the whistle of the 
blue-bird among the apple-boughs, and the chirrup of 
the frog from the morasses, the next is sure to follow, 
loaded with sheeted mists sullenly sailing westward 
before a soul-searching and ice-cold gale from Labrador, 
or Greenland, and the promise of the year is not only 
deferred, but, it may well be, nipped outright, for that 
the earth has reposed rash faith in the fair but false- 
seeming visage of the skies. 

But, with May, if there be any vernal weather coming, 
we have it present. The fury of the east wind, if not 
quelled, is broken ; and we shall have green leaves 
rustling into breezy life, and warblers busy in the 
orchards, brown thrushes vocal in the woodlands, 
swallows skimming the pools and twittering in the 
eaves; and last, not least, trout flashing through the 
glassy ripples, as they spring fast and frequent to clutch 



THE BKOOK TROUT. 131 

the insect food which come forth now so plenteoiisly to 
sport their little day in the warm sunshine. 

Along the Atlantic coast, indeed, on Long Island, and 
to the eastward, where, in fact, alone on the Atlantic 
coast of the United States trout prevail, fishing is per- 
mitted by law, and practiced by sportsmen, long before 
this, the true month of the fly-fisher. In March it com- 
mences on the Island, w^here formerly was the finest 
trout-fishing perhaps in all the country ; but where the 
streams are now wdiipped so severely, that in spite of 
stringent regulations lately resorted to — to lately — in 
the vain hope of preserving them, the run of fish are 
declining in size year after year, and a good day's sport 
is fast getting to be a thing little to be expected, scarce 
even to be hoped for. In March, the trout will rarely 
look at the fiy, and are caught at this season for the 
most part with the float and red, or brandling worm ; on 
bright, w^arm days, however, they will at times take the 
artificial flj^, and it is remarkable that very early in the 
season they will rise at a bright, gaudy fly, like nothing 
in nature, which a month or two later they would prob- 
ably reject with contempt. Two or three years ago, the 
most killing early fly was a scarlet Ibis wing, scarlet silk 
and gold twist body ; but subsequently it has failed so 
generally, as to have fallen into some sort of disrepute. 
The flies especially recommended for this month, imita- 
tions of the natural insects, are the red fly, blue dun, 
red spinner, great dark dun, cow-dung fly, March brown, 



132 AMERICAN GAME. 

or dun drake, and great red spinner ; and any of these 
are well-proved and successful flies in England ; but in 
this country the fact is that even in the warmest regions 
in which the American brook-trout is found, the natural 
fly of any kind is scarcely on the water at all at this 
season ; and that one is just as likely as the other. 
April brings the golden dun midge, the sand fly, the 
stone fly, the grannom, or green sail, the yellow dun, the 
iron-blue dun, the jenny-spinner, and the hawthorn fly, 
The third, fourth, and fifth of which will be found very 
tempting during the whole period of spring fishing ; as 
will also, or perhaps I should say, more so, the yellow 
May dun, the black gnat, the downhill fly, the Turkey 
brown, little dark spinner, yellow Sally, fern fly, or 
soldier, alder fly, and green and gray drake, which may 
be regarded as particularly, according to the doctrin- 
aires, the flies of the month. I confess that I am not 
myself a believer in the use of particular flies, for par- 
ticular months or seasons, except as regards particular 
waters; and, in fact, such an application is utterly 
impossible in a country of the extent of the trout-fishing 
region of North America ; where the months and the 
very seasons differ by twenties and forties of degrees. 
The trout-fishing region of ITorth America may be said, 
generally, to extend from ISTova Scotia and Lower 
Canada, eastward to the feeders of Lake Superior on the 
west, and from the extreme northern seas to the Atlantic 
coasts, eastward of the Hudson. Westward of that 



THE EROOK TKOUT. 133 

river, they are scarcely found south of the Alleghany 
ridges, nor in the Western States south of the Great 
Lakes, or west of Michigan, until we reach the Paciifc 
watershed/'^ Xow, as this district extends over not less 
than thirty -five degrees of longitude from east to west, 
by fifteen of latitude from north to south, it must be 
obvious that no general rules can be adopted which shall 
be applicable to the whole of that vast tract. In the 
British provinces, and Lower Canada, the rivers are not 
clear of thick ice until the end of April or early in 
May ; and in the western country, on Lakes Huron and 
Superior, the season, if any thing, is later. On Long 
Island, in May, trout-fishing is nearly at an end ; on the 
Callicoon, the Beaverkill, and the various tributaries of 
the upper Delaware and Susquehanna, it is then begin- 
ning, and is shortly after in its perfection. On the 
superb lakes and streams of Hamilton county, New 
York, and of the Xorth Eastern States, June is the 
month, par excellence: and probably, for those who can 
endure the pest of the black fly and black midge, there 
is no such fishing in the world, for extent of water, quan- 
tit}^, and size of fish, and loveliness of scenery, as the 
former locality can afibrd to those who are bold enough 

* In tlie Western and Southern States several different fish, in nowise 
connected with the trout, nor belonging to the same family salmo, are 
known as trout. The fish so called from South Carolina, southward is 
a variety of the Squeteagae or wheat fish, Otolithus CaroUnensis — that 
misnamed trout in the West is a species of fresh water bass, coriin^i. 



134: AMERICAN GAME. 

to defy the plague of flies, and rough it. At the Saiilt 
St. Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior into Lake Huron, 
where the St. Marie, a river above a mile wide, rushes in 
a sheet of glancing and foaming rapids, down a descent 
of some twenty-four feet in about a mile, literally alive 
with the most magnificent brook-trout, by far the largest, 
in the general nm, of any taken in America, the season 
does not begin until very late, and the fishing is not con- 
sidered to be in its prime until September. The fish 
here are of the finest quality, for size, beauty of color- 
ing, and excellence of fiesh. From two to three pound 
may be considered, I think, as about the average run of 
fish, but five and six j)ounders are l)y no means rarities ; 
and it is on record that one fish a little exceeding ten 
pounds, and many exceeding nine, were brought into 
the American fort by the Indians, a premium having 
been ofiered for a ten-pounder. These, I wish it to be 
particularly observed, are not lake trout of any variety 
— several species of which are found in the same waters 
— but the genuine red-spotted brook-trout, with pink 
sides and silver belly, and tricolored fins, white, black, 
and red, when in high season. It difibrs in nothing, 
except size and brilliancy of tints, both the result of 
feeding and quality of water, from the famous Long 
Island trout of Snedecor's and Carman's, or from the 
small iry, scarcely bigger than minnows, which swarm 
in every rocky basin of every mountain brooklet from 



THE BKOOK TKOUT. 135 

Maine, 'New Ilampsliire, and Vermont, to npland Penn- 
sylvania. 

The fishing at the Sanlt St. Marie is difficult, because 
it is practised from that, to one unaccustomed to its use, 
most ticlvlish of all vessels, a birch-bark canoe, poled by 
an Indian up the foaming rapids, or guided down them, 
and held steady from time to time in the most favorable 
spots. Where, however, the angler is so well accustomed 
to his conveyance as to be able to balance his body 
without bracing, it, and move his arms without danger 
of upsetting the canoe, the sport is admirable, the scene 
enchanting, and the fun vastly enhanced by the touch 
of romance, and possibility of danger, which, however, 
with a good Indian at the pole or paddle, amounts to no 
more at most than a possibility. The best rod to use in 
this powerful and tumultuous torrent is a tolerably stiff 
fourteen foot fly-rod ; the water is so much broken, that 
tackle may be used which, from its coarseness, would be 
quite out of the question in fine and clear waters ; and 
the most killing flies are large and moderately gaudy 
lake flies. Such as are used on the Irish lakes I prefer 
to the very fancy-colored flies which are often used on 
tlie Hamilton county waters, and the very best assort, 
ment of these I have ever seen, were tied by my friend 
"Dinks," of Canada "West, who has proved them mur- 
derous in that locaU. 

It must, of course, be evident, that in a paper limited 
in length such as this, it is utterly impossible to go at 



136 AMERICAN GAME. 

length into a subject so intricate and so full of details, 
as the habits and nature of trout, their haunts, habita 
tions, and all the various devices for taking them which 
have been invented by the ingenuity of man. 

Of fresh water fish, they have been in all ages consid- 
ered the best on the board ; and, as fish of game, none 
except others of their own family, such as the salmon, 
the salmon-trout, the greyling, and one variety of the 
lake-trout, are worthy of comparison to them; bold, 
active, and fierce in pursuit of their prey, voracious in 
their appetites, so cunning and quick-sighted that they 
can be deceived only by the finest of tackle, and the 
most exquisite imitations of the flies on which tliey feed 
by preference ; so vigorous, determined and savage in 
their resistance to the hook after being struck, that they 
can be mastered only by a rare combination of science 
and skill, of delicacy and firmness, of perseverance and 
resources ; the capture of the brook-trout with the arti- 
ficial fly and single gut, or single horse-hair, which must 
be had recourse to where the streams are fine and the 
fish shy, is the very ne plus idtra^ and has ever been so 
indisputably admitted, of the anglers' art. The imple- 
ments are a light twelve-foot rod, very pliable and 
springy, and bending on a strain, in an even curve from 
the second joint to the tip — I prefer a solid butt, which 
gives more power in leverage and resistance against a 
strong run-away fish, and the spare tips can be carried 
in the handle of the landing-net, or gaft' — a good click 



THE BEOOK TROUT. 137 

reel, by no means a multiplier, thirty lines of good hair, 
or hair and silk line, with a casting line of the best gut, 
about four and a half or five feet in length, and two or 
three casts of flies, twisted round your hat, each having 
a different fly for the dropper, to be changed, accordingly 
as you find fish in the humor to rise. 

My own favorites are the marlow buzz, better known 
as the coch-a-bonddlue ; silver-horns, black and silver 
twist hackle, the green and gray drakes, the yellow 
Sally, the downhill fly, woodcock wing, and red hackle, 
the grannon, or green tail, the blue and yellow dun flies, 
and almost any of the spinners. I am also rather par- 
tial to the buzz-dressed, unwinged hackle flies of almost 
any color, with red, green, black or yellow bodies, which 
may be varied with gold or silver twist. Any of these 
I can recommend by experience as killing flies ; I should 
not omit the small black midge, which on some waters^ 
and in some states of weather, is a most killing lure to 
wary fish, being very small, and requiring delicate tackle. 
Where waters are much fished, and trout so much per- 
secuted as to be very shy of rising, sport may sometimes 
be had by fishing at twilight with a large white miller, 
white hen's wing, white chenil body and black head, 
and as the largest and laziest, and, of course, fattest fish 
rarely pursue their prey in the day-time, but are on the 
feed all night, if any sport is to be had at all in this 
manner, it is nearly certain to be good sport. 

Large trout may be killed thus in the upper Delaware, 



138 AMERICAN GAIME. 

along the line of tlie Erie Kailroacl, where the country 
people will tell you that there are no trout in the river 
though the small creeks are full of them. The truth is 
the fish in the river are very much fewer in number, but 
as much superior in size and weight. They w^ho, like 
me, prefer to kill a one, two or three-pounder to ten 
dozen iingerlings of four or five ounces each, are advised 
to try the miller by dnsk or by moon-light, and if there 
be a big fellow about, he is j^i'ctty sure to be tempted. 

The trout does not, when feeding, travel or swim in 
shoals; he lies in wait in his own peculiar haunt, and 
tlience strikes at whatever he sees passing that temj)ts 
his appetite. This haunt is generally in the neighbor- 
hood of a stone or root, near the head or tail of a rapid, 
in an eddy or swirl of the current, or in the broken w^a- 
ter caused by the division of a current above the head 
of an island or shoal, and its reunion below it. Here 
they lie with the head up stream, perfectly motionless, 
not even wagging a tail or twinkling a fin, until their 
object is in view, and then darting upon it with speed 
that mocks the eye. They are insensible to sound, but 
so quick of sight and so wary, that the mere shadow of 
the rod projected across the water will prevent their 
taking a fly, however hungry they may be, and however 
skillfully the lure may be presented. 

It is better to fish down stream, away from the sun, 
and across the wind, if possil)le ; but the three contin- 
gencies are not always compatible. When a trout is 



THE BROOK TROUT. 139 

rising often, endeavor to drop yonr fly directly in the 
centre of the circle where he bells up, and if it alights 
lightly and gently on the water, he will pretty certainly 
take it. If he takes it just as it strikes the water, or 
just as it is leaving it, when you are withdrawing it for 
another cast — that is, when your line is perfectly straight 
and tight, he will hook himself; otherwise it is neces- 
sary to strike him, which is done by a very slight inde- 
scribable inward turn of the wrist; when he is struck, 
the great secret of playing and killing him is to make 
him fight his hardest for every inch of line you give him 
never to give him one which he does not take, and to 
miss no 023portunity, when his run is over for the mo- 
ment, and he is weakened, to reel in as fast as you may 
without overstraining; always endeavor to carry him 
down stream, as the gills are so closed by the action of 
the water, and his breathing is impeded. If he is mak- 
ing for a stone or piles whereon your tackle would prob- 
ably be broken, or down a fall, so that you must turn or 
lose him, advance your butt, inclining your rod quite 
backward over the right shoulder, so as to make him 
take the full strain and leverage of the whole length of 
your rod : when he is dead beat, draw him warily and 
gently into the shoal water, or, to your boat side, slip 
your landing-net under, or your gaff into him, and ho 
is yours. 

If he be above two pounds weight, stun him with a 
blow on the head, crossing by a series of cuts parallel to 



140 AMERICAN GAME. 

the gills, at about two inches apart from head to tail 
cool him for ten minutes in a very cold spring, or on ice, 
boil him in screeching hot salt and water, and eat him 
with no condiment but salt and the squeeze of a lemon. 

If he be under a pound, there is nothing for it but to 
fry him, but remember to use neither butter nor lard, 
which are abominations to the gnostic, but the best oil 
of Aix, and see that the oil is seething and the pan crack- 
ling hot before you put them in. Garnish with fried 
parsley on a very hot dish ; and in whichever way you 
cook them, eat them — whenever you can get them, that 
is to say, between March and September — in the north- 
west you may substitute for the last JSTovember ; on the 
third of which month, last season, I discoursed sundry 
in prime condition at mine host Brown's, on the Sault 
St. Marie ; and the taste is scarce out of my mouth yet. 
I have tasted nothing like them since, or expect to do so 
until next September, when, the wind and weather-gods 
permitting, I hope to wet a line there, in the Fly-fisher's 
true Paradise. And may you have, whoever you be, 
gentle reader, and wheresoever you throw the long lino 
and neat fly, such sport as I anticipate. 



THE BRENT GOOSE. 

THE BKAXT. — Anas Beniicha. 

This beautiful and delicious wild-fowl, like several of 
its congenors which breed within the limits of the Arctic 
Circle, is common to both continents of Europe and 
America, and is with us in the northern Atlantic states 
perhaps the most numerous, and certainly the most 
esteemed, whether as an object of sport or an article of 
food, of the varieties of this family, which are common 
upon our coasts. To the Canada Goose, or Wild-Goose, 
as it is more usually termed, Anas Canadensis, it is 
universally, and not undeservedly, preferred ; although, in 
my opinion, the former is itself entitled to a far higher 
place than is generally assigned to it among the water 
fowl of America. The Snow-Goose, Anas Hyjperhoreus 
and the White-Fronted Goose, Anas ATbifrons, are so 
rare that opportunities seldom occur of testing their com- 
parative excellence. In England I once tasted the latter 
fowl, and found it scarcely distinguishable from the Grey 
Lag, or common Wild-Goose of Europe, Anas Anser, 



142 AMERICAN GAME. 

wliicli in my opinion is inferior both to the Canada and the 
Erent Goose ; and thongh I have heard the Snow-Goose 
highly lauded for its delicacy and juiciness, I believe we 
shall do no injustice to any in declaring the 'BrsLnt, facile 
et nullo discrhnine ])7'inceps. 

It is worthy of remark that the habits of this bird are 
greatly different in England and in this country, inasmuch 
as there they are stated " to spend the winter months in 
the rivers, lakes and marshes in the interior parts, feed- 
ing materially upon the roots and also the blades of the 
long, coarse grasses, and plants which grow in the wa- 
ter." Here they are entirely marine birds, frequenting 
the outer estuaries of the large rivers, the land-locked 
lagoons or sea-bays, which lie between our outer beaches 
and the shores proper of the continent, for so many de- 
grees of latitude along our Atlantic sea-board, and never, 
so far as I know or have heard, entering our rivers proper, 
or being killed in any fresh inland waters. So 
strongly is this peculiarity marked in the Brent Goose, 
that when they leave their feeding-grounds to the 
northward, compelled by stress of climate in winter, for 
lower latitudes, and again when they take their departure 
for the Arctic regions, impelled 

creandae* 
Prolis amore, graviqiie cupidine nidificandi, 

* By the affection for the young which they are about to rear, and 
the urgent desire of nidification, — Lucretius on Brent Geese. 



THE BKEXT GOOSE. 143 

" they collect,'' says Wilson, " in one large body, and 
making an extensive spiral course, some miles in diame- 
ter, rise to a great height in the air, and then steer for 
the sea, over which they uniformly travel ; often making 
wide circuits to avoid passing over a projecting point of 
land. In these aerial routes, they have been often met 
with many leagues from shore, travelling the whole night. 
Their line of march very much resembles that of the 
Canada Goose, with this exception, that frequently three 
or four are crowded together in front, as if striving for 
precedency." 

To such a length is this terror of the land passage car- 
ried by the Brent Goose, that no doubt can be, I think 
reasonably entertained that, in order to avoid it, they 
make the whole of their vast migration, to and fro, from 
their breeding-places hither, and vice versa^ in direct con- 
tradiction to the custom of their congenors, the Canada 
Geese, which travel from point to point, in direct lines, 
directed by an instinct certain as the compass, and travel- 
ling the boundless wildernesses and vast inland waters 
of the northern territories, and the cultivated regions 
which intervene between those and their winter haunts 
on the seashores of the Atlantic, with unrivaled speed 
and unerring sagacity. A pretty certain proof of this is 
to be found in the fact that on the northern shores of 
Lakes Huron and Superior, and in the small rice lakes 
adjoining them, although abounding in their favorite 
food, the eel-grass, and frequented in myriads of millions 



144 AMEKICAN GAME. 

by the Canada Goose, on the breaking up of the ice in 
spring, and again at the setting in of winter, the Brent 
Goose is unknown both to the Indians and to the white 
settlers ; nor are they known about the yet more north- 
erly forts of the Hudson's Bay Company — short of the 
Bay itself, where they abound — who regard the Canada 
Goose as one of the principal, if not the chief article of 
their subsistence. 

The breeding place of the Brent Goose is very far to 
the north, though not so far as that of the Wild-Goose, 
which is sujDposed, not without reason, to rear its young 
and pass the brief days of summer of the Arctic Circle 
in the regions of the Pole itself, while the Brent has been 
found on its nests in Labrador, to the northward of Hud- 
son's Bay, and in Boothia Felix. Here, fearless of the 
ambushed gun, and the murderous battery, it revels dur- 
ing a few short months in those to it delightful solitudes, 
occupied with the charms of love, and the cares of rear 
ing its young. It doos not, however, tarry long in its 
northern asylum, as it is usually looked for in the Long 
Island waters, and at Barnegat, Egg Harbor, and other 
shooting stations on the Jersey coast, early in October, 
and has been seen so early as the 20th of September. Its 
stay in these places is uncertain, depending very much on 
the nature of the season, often remaining, if it be open 
weather, during nearly the whole of the w^inter, while 
on the contrary, if the bays are frozen early, it at once 
owers aloft, and takes its way southward. It seems, how- 



THE BRENT GOOSE. 145 

ever, to come southward continually by successive partial 
migrations, until the freezing of the feeding-grounds 
compel it to march southwardly. 

The food of the Brant is principally the eel-grass, Zoa- 
tera Marina^ wherever that favorite dainty of all the 
aquatic tribes is to be found in plenty, and a broad-leaved, 
bright green marine plant, called by the country people 
sea-cabbage, which adheres to the stones on most of our 
beaches. After these it never dives — althouf^h it is 
remarkable that when wing-tipped it is the most dexter- 
ous of the family, often going a hundred yards or upward 
under water, and being therefore regarded as almost 
impossible to kill, if not shot dead outright. At low^ wa- 
ter it wades about incessantly, tearing up its favorite 
vegetables by the roots, but neglecting to eat them until 
they are floated away with the rising tide, when it does 
not take wing, as most wild-fowl, but floats away idly in 
long lines with its companions, in pursuit of its now 
floating dainty, and fares sumptuously on the proceeds 
of its previous industry. They are not unpugnacious 
birds, being often seen fighting among themselves, and 
beating the ducks away from their feeding-grounds ; their 
cry is a hoarse, gabbling, honking sound, very diflerent, 
however, from the honk of the TVild-Goose, and by far 
more difficult to imitate, and is said closely to resemble, 
when several hundreds are screaming together, the cho- 
rus of a pack of hounds in full cry. 

On their return from the south, with renovated powers, 
7 



146 AMERICAN GAME. 

in full, lusty liealtli, rejuvenated, and exulting in the ap- 
proacli of their summer love-making, they are in their 
full perfection of plumage, and their utmost excellence 
for the table. There is no Long Islander, and few Jer- 
seymen, who are not fully awake to the preeminent merits 
of a May Brant — for it is about the fifteenth of that 
genial month, when they for the first time reappear 
among us, the youth of the past year now in full adult 
plumage, and not to be distinguished from the adults. 
They tarry, however, at this period but for a few days, 
ere they are again up and off to the northward ; still so 
eager are their pursuers at this season, that short as is 
their stay the havoc made among them is yet not incon- 
siderable. 

At this season the Brant weighs about four pounds, 
and measures two feet in lengtli from bill to tail, and 
three feet six from tip to tip of the extended wings. Tlie 
bill is black, rather high at the base, the nostril medial. 
The head, and the whole length of the neck, with the 
exception of a white oblong patch on either s'.de of the 
throat, rich velvety black; front j)art of the breast cine- 
rious brown, each feather broadly margined with grayish 
white. The upper parts blackish brown, each featlier 
margined with lighter brown ; sides gray, margined with 
white ; abdomen and vent pure wliite ; quills and pri- 
mary coverts dark blackish gray. Rumj) and middle 
tail feathers black, rest of the tail grayish white. Irides 
hazel ; legs dusky. The female is smaller than the male, 



TIIE BKENT GOOSE. 14:7 

but not to be distinguisbed from it by any mark of tbe 
phimage ; tbe young birds bave tbe wing quill featbers 
broadly tipped witb wbite, wbile in tbe old birds tbey 
are purely black. 

Tbere is a variety of tbis line goose, pretty well known 
on Long Island, tbe true name of wbicb is Hutcbins' 
Goose, or Hutcbins' Brant ; it is somewbat smaller, and 
in lieu of tbe lateral wbite tbroat patcbes, bas a wbite 
gorget a good deal similar to tbat of tbe Canada Goose. 

AVe now come to tbe modes of killing this delicious 
bird, of w^liicb tbere are four; tbree of tbem, one juclice^ 
utterly unallow^able, cockney andpot-bunter like, and tbe 
fourtli unbappily tbe least profitable to tbe gunner, 
altbougb tbe Brent Goose bas one babit wdiicb may be 
used to some advantage in tbis tbe only legitimate mode. 

Tliat mode is tbe scooping out a nicbefrom tbe muddy 
side of some island, or point of bassock, kussick, or tbatcb, 
as it is called in tbe bays, and tberein mooring a skiff, or 
Egg Harbor boat, witb its decks beaped witb trasb and 
sea-weeds, tbe gunner lying on bis back tberein, witb bis 
two beavy guns prepared for a passing flock, and bis 
decoys scattered over tbe calm w^aters in front of bim, 
w^ben if a flock cbance to pass, and, observing tbe 
ancbored deceits, wbeel down to tbem, be is secure at 
once of sport, and of after excitement in pursuing and 
picking up tbe cripples. 

The disadvantages to tbis metbod are tbe following: 
First, tbe Brant is on our waters a lazy, inactive bird, 



148 AMERICAN GAME. 

averse to rising on the wing, and rarely doing so unless 
alarmed by a j)assing boat or the firing of a gun ; and 
this tendency is increased in consequence of its feeding 
afloat at high water, v/ithout taking the wing at all, 
while the other varieties of wild-fowl, as point after point 
is successively submerged, are compelled to take wdng, 
and cross the points of hassock, or run the gauntlet of 
the islands in going to or returning from his favorite feed- 
ing place. 

Second, the known aversion of this bird to pass over 
or near points or islands, which is no less manifest in its 
transits up and down the bay, tlian in its longer voyages, 
for it may be said that it never when on tlie wing ap- 
proaches the gunner's ambush, or notices his decoys, 
however temjDtingly they may ride and dip at anchor, 
when near the land, unless they be jammed down by the 
wind upon a leeward point, one of which is always se- 
lected by the best gunners who have watched the direc- 
tion of their morning transit, and who know how they 
must return . This difficulty is but partially compensated 
by the habit of the Brant of occasionally swimming in 
among the stools, and so affording an easy and sure shot. 
There is another fact, however, which, as I said above, 
may be made directly subservient to this sport, and thus 
it is — Brent Geese, while feeding, as they drift about at 
high water, may be herded like so many sheep, and 
caused to swim in any direction desired, and may be so 
driven down upon the decoys, for which they are almost 



THE BEENT GOOSE. 141) 

sure to make, by rowing round and after tliem slowly, 
taking especial pains not to press tlieir motions or crowd 
upon tliem so as to compel tliem to take wing, wlien of 
course, all would be over. The confederate of the gun- 
ner should therefore be wary and watchful, as well as 
skillful with the oar, and whenever he observes the fowl 
he is driving, hurrying and getting anxious, and pressing 
into one compact body, he must lie on his paddles en- 
tirely, until he sees his game resume their feeding or 
j)lay, when he may again take the initiative. This, 
well done, is sure to produce good sport, time, tide, 
w^eather and good luck agreeing, without which, neither 
in Love, War, or Brant Shooting can success be looked 
for. 

Let me commend this method to my friend, the true 
and honorable sportsman, who would rather return home 
at night weary and cold, and with an empty bag or boat, 
than come loaded to his gunwale w^itli booty obtained by 
any indirections, such as those which I shall be forced 
to name hereafter, though with maledictions on the 
inventors, and disgustful contempt for the practicers of 
them, as methods of Brant-murdering. 

Let me remind the sportsman that this kind of shoot- 
ing is practiced in very cold v/eather, in a motionless and 
cramped attitude, and depriving him of the chance of 
warming his limbs with exercise. He must, therefore, be 
well and warmly clad, or he shall not be able to shoot 



150 AlklEEICAN GAME. 

tolerably, miicli less to enjoy liimself or win renown, let 
tlie flocks fly as full and frequent as tliey will. 

Tlie following dress I have found tlie best — those may 
sneer who will, but I think, and they will find, wdien 
their fortieth year brings crippling rheumatism, that it is 
wisdom at all times to be as comfortable as one may, and 
that it is no mark of manhood, but rather of very con- 
temptible folly, to lie cold and shivering, for the want of 
a few precautions which may be easily taken, and will 
make you as much at your ease as may be, in a Dela- 
ware skiif or Egg-Harbor pig-box. 

First, over your ordinary under-clothes wear a stout 
pair of Canada-gray cloth trousers ; over these a pair of 
long worsted stockings, and over these again long pliable 
Canadian boots. A red flannel shirt, and above that a 
guernsey, with what waistcoat and shooting-jacket you 
will, and over all an oil-skin coat, as near as may be of 
the drab color of the sedge and hassock ; on your head a 
woolen night-cap, and above it a gray tow hat ; and — 
though your rig may terrify into convulsions a young 
New Yorlcer, with ends to his white choker longer than 
the yard-arms of a first-rate — take my word for it, it will 
not scare Brant, Goose, or Eed-Head from your stools, 
and it will keep you, with the aid of a modicum of 
cogniac, Jamaica, or Ferintosh, as your taste may incline, 
cozy and good-natured, while your friend, who is too 
manly to take counsel, is as cold and as cross as whatever 
is most frigid and most fiendish. 



THE BRENT GOOSE. 151 

I recommend — for reasons why, too long here to set 
forward, — see my Field Sports, vol. II., p. 119 — the nse of 
two single gmis of 16 lbs. weight, 42 inch barrels and 5 
guage, in preference to any double-barrel guns on earth 
for this shooting. They should be made without ribs, 
pipes or ramrods — a loose loading-rod, which is a clean- 
ing-rod also, lying in the boat when in use, being adopted 
as a substitute. This should be made with a joint at ex- 
actly the length of the gun-barrel, so that it can be car- 
ried within it when travelling ; the upper joint about 6 
inches in length, screwing into the other, and fitted with 
a knot at the toj), like a pistol-charger, may be carried in 
the pocket when in locomotion. Such a gun will carry 
4 oz. of BB, or twenty-five buck-shot, without jar or recoil : 
use equal measures of shot and Curtis and Harvey's duck- 
ing powder, to be j)i*ocured of Brough, Fulton-street, 
New York — and coarse felt punched wadding, and you 
will do your work at eighty, ay, by 'r lady ! or one hun- 
dred yards, and you will not repent you of following my 
coimsel. 

The murderous modes, which I have so strongly repro- 
bated, and to which I shall devote but a few words, are, 
first, the anchoring batteries, as they are called, shallow 
coffin-like boxes, supported by wide liorizontal brims 
lying level on the surface of the water, covered with 
sand and shells, and exactly resembling a bit of bare shoal, 
upon the shallows whereon the fowl feed. Decoys are 
placed around, and an attendant waits in a skifiT to secure 



152 AMEEICAiq- GAME. 

tlie cri2:)ples and drive up fresli flocks, while tlie gunner 
lies jDerdu literally under water, until he starts up to do 
bloody execution. 

The evil of this method, (of the other two, which I 
shall barely name, as they are far less practiced, one, I 
believe, only at one point,) is, that fowl, when constantly 
harassed and disturbed on their favorite grounds, while 
in the act of feeding, will rise high into the air 
and desert the places in which they are so wantonly 
tormented forever; whereas they may be peppered at 
day by day for years, and decimated as they fly to and 
fro without connecting the idea of the persecution with 
the feeding grounds, and without increasing in shyness or 
decreasing in numbers. 

The second unsportsmanly and slaughterous plan is 
running down upon them before the wind under sail, 
while on their feeding grounds, which is easily done, as 
the fowl appear wholly unable to distinguish the rate of 
a sail-boat, and let it run closely in upon them before 
they will take wing. The havoc thus made is prodigious ; 
the consequences as above, the permanent and entire de- 
sertion of the spots where such brutalities are practiced. 
The last is akin to these. It is a necessity to the Brant 
to sand and dust themselves occasionally, and probably 
to obtain small gravel-stones to aid their digestion, and 
they have regular sanding places, as they are termed, to 
which they punctually and constantly resort. This habit 
observed, the pot-hunter digs his hole in the sand-hill, 



THE BKENT GOOSE. 153 

watches liis time, and counts liis slangliter bj flocks, at 
sliots. Like the owner of the goose with the golden 
eggs, he will find too late that he has killed his people as 
]N"ero wished to do, at a single blow. Legislation has 
been tried, against all these three cowardly iniquities, 
and of course tried in vain. It rests to see what incul- 
cating a spirit of sportsmanship may do ; but I am little 
sanguine, seeing that true sportsmanship, like the game 
it fain would, but cannot, j)rotect, decreases year by 
year — many of those who boast themselves sportsmen, 
and here an I would I could name names, doing deeds 
the foullest pot-hunter would shrink from, and holding 
themselves as high as ever in their own esteem, tliough 
lower than the lowest in the judgment of the judicious. 

Be this, however, as it may be, the only hope is in the 
efforts of the honorable sportsman, and so let him hope- 
ful ever of the best, hold the helm steady, steer on 
through squall or hurricane, and never — whatever be- 
tide — never give up the ship ! 



VI. 

JUHE. 

Cj)c |vci:r-htiistcir Siu|C. 

Scolopax Novel oracensis. 

EOBm SNIPE, QUAIL SNIPE, DOWITCHER. 
THE IIUDSONIAN GODWIT. 

Limosa ITudsonica. 

EING-TAILED MAELIN. 

NORTH AMERICA; LABRADOR TO THE GULF, 



Clje Salman 

Salmo Salar. 
LABRADOR; BRITISH PROVINCES: STATE OF MAINE. 




1 e 






THE SNIPE. 

THE HUDSONIAN GODwiT. — Limosa HudsoTiica, 

VulgO. RING-TAILED MARLIN. 

THE RED-BEEASTED SNIPE. — Scolojjjax Novebovacensis. 

VulgO. ROBIN-BREAST, QUAIL SNIPE, DOWITCHER. 

Under the general, and very incorrect appellation of 
Bay Snipe, and sometimes of Plover, tlie sea-shore gun- 
ners, and city fowlers who accompany them for pleasure, 
are wont to include many totally distinct and different 
families of waders, each containing several varieties, and 
all, though in some sort connected, entirely dissimilar in 
characteristics, plumage, cry and flight, as well as in 
some peculiarities of habit. 

Of these families, the most remarkable are the Curlew, 
numenius / the Godwit, limosa / the Sandpiper, tringa / 
the Tattler, totanus / the Plover, charadrius j the Snipe, 
scolo^ax I the Turnstone, strejpsilas ', the Sanderling, ca- 
lidris / the Avoset, recurvirosta / and the Stilt, himanto- 
piis I all of which at some period of the year are visiters 
or temporary inhabitants of some portion of the Atlantic 



158 AMERICAN GAME. 

shores of North America, from the Bay of Boston to the 
Balize. 

Ill the tepid waters of Florida, the great bay of Mobile, 
the sea lal^es of Borgne and Pontchartrain, and all along 
the muddy shoals and alluvial flats of the lower Missis- 
si]3pi, these aquatic races dwell in myriads during the 
winter months, when the ice is thick even in the sea 
bays of the Delaware and Chesapeake, and when all the 
gushing streams and vocal rivulets of the Northern and 
Middle States, are bound in frozen silence. In the 
spring, according to the temperature of the season, from 
the middle of April until the end of May, these migra- 
tory tribes begin to visit us of the northern shores, from 
the Capes of the Chesapeake, along all the river estua- 
ries, sea bars, lagoons, and land-locked bays, as they are 
incorrectly termed, of Maryland and Delaware, the Jer- 
sey shores and the Long Island waters, so far as to 
Boston Bay, beyond which the iron-bound and rugged 
nature of the coast deters them from adventuring, in the 
great flights with which they infest our more succulent 
alluvial shores and sea marshes. 

With the end of May, wdth the exception only of a few 
loitering stragglers, wounded, perhaps, or wing-worn, 
which linger after the departure of their brethren, they 
have all departed, steering their way, unseen, at immense 
altitudes, through the trackless air, across the mighty 
continent, across the vast lakes of the north, across the 
unreclaimed and almost unknown hunting-grounds of 



THE SNIPE. 159 

the red man to tliose remote and nearly inaccessible 
morasses of the Arctic Regions whither the foot of man 
has rarely penetrated, and where the silence of ages is 
interrupted only by the roll of the ocean surf, the thun- 
derous crash of some falling iceberg, and the continuous 
clangor of the myriads and millions of aquatic fowl, 
which pass the period of reproduction in those lone and 
gloomy, but to them secure and delightful asylums. 
Early in the autumn, or, to speak more correctly, in the 
latter days of summer, the Bay birds begin to return in 
hordes innumerable, recruited by the young of the sea- 
son, which, not having as yet indued the full plumage 
of their respective tribes, are often mistaken by sports- 
men and gunners, unacquainted with the distinctions of 
natural history, for new species. During the autumn, 
they are much more settled and less restless in their 
habits than during the spring visit, when they are im- 
pelled northward by the irresistible CBstrum, which at 
that period stimulates all the migratory birds, even those 
reared in confinement and caged from the nest, to get 
under way and travel, whither their wondrous instinct 
orders them, in order to the reproduction of their kind 
in the localities most genial and secure. 

Throughout the months of August and September, 
they literally swarm on all our sand-bars, salt meadows, 
and wild sea-marshes, feeding on the beaches and about 
the shallow pools left by the retiring tide, on the marine 
animalcula?, worms, aquatic insects, small crabs, minute 



160 AMERICAN GAME. 

sliell-fisli, and fry ; after this time, commencing from the 
beginning of October, they move southward for winter 
quarters, although some species tarry later than others, 
and some loitering individuals of all the species linger 
behind until they have assumed their winter garniture, 
when they are again liable to be mistaken for unknown 
varieties. 

Of these misnamed Bay Snipe, the following are the 
species of each family most prized by the sportsman and 
the epicure, all of which are eagerly pursued by the 
gunner, finding a ready sale at all times, although, ma 
judice, their flesh is, for the most part, so oily, rank and 
sedgy, that they are rather nauseous than delicate or 
palatable. Much, however, depends on the state of 
their condition, the nature of the food on which they 
have fattened, and localities in wdiich they feed ; and 
to some persons the very flavor of w^hich I complain 
as rank, sedgy and fishy, appears to take the guise of an 
agreeable liaxit gout. 

The Red-breasted Sandpiper, Tringa Icelandica^ 
known on the Long Island waters, among the small 
islets of which it is very abundant, as the " Eobin 
Snipe," by which name it is generally called, owing to 
the resemblance of its lower plumage to that of the Red- 
breasted Thrush, or Robin, Turdus migratoriits^ of this 
continent. In autumn this bird assumes a dusky gray 
upper, and white under plumage, and is then termed 
the " White Robin Snipe." In point of flesh it is one ot 



THE SNIPE. 161 

tlie best of the Sli ore-birds. It is easily called down to 
the decoys by a well simulated whistle, and is conse- 
quently killed in great numbers. 

Tlie Eed-backed Sandpiper, Tringa Alpina, generally 
know^n as the "Black-breasted Plover." It is a restless, 
active and nimble bird, flies in dense bodies, whirling at 
a given signal ; and at such times a single shot will fre- 
quently bring down many birds. In October it is usually 
very fat, and is considered excellent eating. In its 
autumnal plumage it is generally known to fowlers as 
the "Winter Snipe." 

The Pectoral Sandpiper, Tringa pedoi'cdis. This is a 
much smaller, but really delicious species, particularly 
Avhen killed on the upland meadows, which it frequents 
late in the spring and early in the summer, and on which 
I have killed it lying well to the dog, which will point 
it, while spring snipe-shooting. On Long Island it is 
known as the " Meadow Snipe," or "Short ]^eck;" on 
the Jersey shores, about Egg Harbor, where it sometimes 
lingers until the early part of N'ovember, it is called the 
" Fat Bird," a title which it well merits ; and in Penn- 
sylvania, where it occurs frequently, is often termed the 
" Jack Snipe." It is these blunders in nomenclature, 
and multiplication of local misnomers, which render all 
distinctions of sjDortsmanship so almost incomprehensible 
to the inhabitants of distant districts, and so perplexing 
to the vouthfiil naturalist. Durini? the autumn of 1819 
I killed the Pectoral Sandpiper in great numbers, to- 



162 AMERICAN GAME. 

getlier witli the American Golden Plover, CharadTius 
Marmoratus^ and tlie Black-bellied Plover, Charadriios 
Ilelveticus^ on the marslies of the Aux Canards river, 
near Amherstberg, in Canada West, in the month of 
September, and a month later at Montgomery's Pool, 
between lakes Sincoe and Huron. 

Of the Tattlers, three only are in repute as shore-birds, 
the best of the species, the Bartramian Tattler, Totanus 
Bartramius, better known as the " Upland Plover," 
which is, in fact, with scarcely an exception, the most 
delicious of all our game-birds, being a purely U23land 
and inland variety, and as such never, or but extremely 
seldom, shot on the coast. 

These three are. 

The Yellow-shanks Tattler, Totanus Flavipes^ vulgo, 
" the lesser yellow legs" — a bird, in my opinion, of very 
indifferent qualifications for the table, but easily decoyed, 
and readily answering the fowler's whistle, and there- 
fore affording considerable sport. 

The Telltale Tattler, Totanus Yociferus^ vulgo, " great- 
er yellow legs," a less numerous species than the former, 
and more suspicious. Its flesh, when it feeds on the 
spawn of the king-crab, or " Horse-shoe," is all but un- 
eatable, but later in the season it is in better condition, 
and is esteemed good eating. A few are said to breed in 
New Jersey. In the neighborhood of Philadelphia, where 
these birds are shot in great numbers on tlie mud-flats 
of the Delaware from skiffs, with carefully concealed 



THE SNIPE. 163 

gunners, stealthily paddled down upon tliem till within 
close shooting distances, these birds are termed "Plo- 
vers," and the pursuit of them plover-shooting ; of course 
wrongfully. 

The last of this family is the Semipalmated Tattler, 
Totanus Semipalmatus^ universally known as the " Wil- 
let," from its harsh and shrill cry, constantly repeated 
during the breeding season, the last note of which is 
thought to bear some resemblance to that sound. It is a 
swift, rapid and easy flyer, and though rather shy when 
in exposed situations, can be allured to the decoys. 
"When in good order the flesh of the Willet is very pal- 
atable, although not so greatly esteemed as its eggs, 
which really are delicious. 

IText to these come the Godwits, two in number, 
known by the unmeaning title of Marlin. 

Tlie great Marbled Godwit, Lim^osa Fedoct^ the " Mar- 
lin." This bird, though not very abundant, is a regular 
visitant of the seashores and bays in the spring and au- 
tumn. It is very watchful, and will permit of no near 
approach, unless some of its fellows are killed or woimd- 
ed, when it will hover over the cripple, with loud, shrill 
cries, affording an easy opportunity of getting several 
bar-rels in succession into the flock. 

And the Hudsonian Godwit, Limosa Hudsonica^ or 
the " Ring-tailed Marlin," is a still rarer and smaller 
variety than the last, of very similar habits and of equal 
excellence in flesh. It is far more comm^on in the Mid- 



164: AMERICAN GAISIE. 

die States than in the Eastern districts, and is abundant 
in the wild and barren lands far to the northward. I 
have seen it shot, likewise, on the swamps of the Atcx 
Canards, to which I have already referred. This is the 
larger of the three birds, lying uppermost, in the group, 
at the head of this article ; it was sketched from a fine 
specimen shot on the Delaware in the month of May. 
Jt is thus described by Giraud in his excellent work on 
the Birds of Long Island : 

" Bill, blackish brown, at base of lower mandible yel- 
low; upper parts light-brown, marked wdth dull-brown, 
and a few small, wdiite spots ; neck all round brownish- 
gray ; lower parts wdiite, largely marked with ferrugi- 
nous ; basal part of tail-feathers and a band crossing the 
rump, white. Adult with the bill slender, blackish- 
brown toward the tip, lighter at the base, particularly at 
the base of the lower mandible ; a line of brownish- white 
from the bill to the eye ; lower eyelid white. Throat 
white, spotted wdtli rust color ; head and neck brownish- 
gray ; lower parts white, marked with large spots of 
ferruginous ; under tail-coverts barred with brownish- 
black and ferruginous ; tail brownish-black cast, a white 
band at the base ; a band over the rump ; tips of primary 
coverts and basis of quills white ; upper tail-coverts 
brownish-black, their basis wdiite ; upper parts grayish- 
brow^n, scapulars marked w^ith darker spots ; feet bluish. 
Length fifteen inches and a half, wing eight and a half. 

Among the various families of birds, which are all 



THE SNIPE. 165 

known, as I liave stated, bj tlie general title of Bay 
Snipe, there is but one Snij^e proper, and that is one of 
the most numerous, and perhaps the most excellent of 
the tribes. 

The Red-breasted Snipe, Scolopax Noveboracensis — ■ 
the '' Dowitcher," the "Quail Snipe," the "Brown 
Back." 

A brace of these excellent and beautiful birds are 
dej)icted as thrown carelessly on the ground, under the 
neck of the Ring-tailed Marlin in the preceding sketch. 

This bird has the bill of the true snipe, Scolopax Ame- 
rieaniis, excepting only that the knob at tlie tip of the 
upper mandible of the bill is less distinctly marked. The 
spring plumage of this bird, in which it is depicted 
above, is on the upper parts brownish-black, variegated 
with clove-brown, and light reddish-brown, the second- 
aries and wing-coverts tipped and edged with white. 
Lower parts bright orange colored ferruginous, spotted 
witli dusky, arrow-headed spots. The abdomen paler. 
Tlie tail-feathers and upper-tail coverts alternately bar- 
red with black and white ; the legs and feet dull yellow- 
ish green. 

" At the close of April," says Mr. Giraud, " the Red- 
breasted Snipe arrive on the coasts of Long Island. Li- 
vited by a bountiful supply of food, at the reflux of the 
tide, it resorts to the mud-flats and shoals to partake ot 
the rich supply of shell-fish and insects which nature in 
her plenitude has provided for it. As the tide advances, 



166 AMEKICAN GAISIE. 

it retires to the bog meadows, wliere it is seen probing 
the soft ground for worms. In the scoring it remains 
with ns but a short time. Soon after recruiting it obeys 
the unerring call of nature, and steers for the north, 
where it j^asses the season of reproduction. About the 
middle of July it returns with its young, and continues 
its visit during September, and if the season be open, 
lingers about its favorite feeding grounds until the last 
of the month." 

The specimens from which the above sketch is taken, 
were procured on the Delaware so late as the latter part 
of May ; but it must be remembered that this spring, 
1850, was unusually late and backward. 

This snipe associates in large flocks, is very easily 
whistled, flies in dense and compact bodies over the de- 
coys, and is so gentle that, after half the flock has been 
cut down by the volleys of the lurking gunner, the re- 
mainder will frequently alight, and walk about demurely 
among their dead companions and the illusive decoys, 
until the pieces are reloaded, and the survivors deci- 
mated by a fresh discharge. 

Even when feeding on the open mud-flats, the Eed- 
breasted Snipe is so tame as to allow itself to be ap- 
proached by the sportsman, with little or no address, run- 
ning about and feeding perfectly unsuspicious, until its 
enemy has come within short range, when it springs 
with its tremulous cry only to be riddled with the shot 
of the close discharge. 



THE SNIPE. 167 

The other of these birds worthy of the most attention 
are, 

The Sanderling, Calidris Arencuna^ which, though 
very small, is fat and excellent. 

The Black-bellied Plover, Charadrins HelvetiGus^ 
" Bull-headed," or " Beetle-headed Plover," a shy bird, 
but frequently whistled within gunshot. On the coast 
it is aj)t to be fishy, but when shot inland, and on upland 
pastures, of superior quality. 

Tlie American Golden Plover, Gharadrius Maronora- 
tiis^ " the Frost bird ;" a very beautiful species and of 
rare excellence when killed on the upland, where it is 
found more frequently and more abundantly than on the 
shore. 

The Long-billed Curlew, numenms Longirostris, 
"Sickle-bill," a large, coarse-flavored bird, easily de- 
coyed. 

The Hudsonian Curlew, nmnenius Hudsonicus, " Short- 
billed Curlew," or '' Jack Curlew." Similar to the lat- 
ter in all respects, although smaller in size. 

And last, the Esquimaux Curlew, nuineniiis Borecdis^ 
" the Futes," the " Doe Bird." This bird feeds princi- 
pally on the uplands, in comj)any with the golden 
plovers, and on the same food, videlicit^ grasshoppers, 
insects, seeds, worms, and berries. Its flesh is delicate 
and high flavored. It breeds far to the north and win- 
ters far to the south of the United States, residing with 
us from early in August until late in ITovember. 



168 AMERICAN GAME. 

"With this bird, althougli tliere are numerous other 
smaller species, the list of these tribes may be held 
complete. 

From the commencement of the present month until 
late in the autumn, anywhere along the coasts and bays 
of the ISTorthern and Middle States a bag may readily be 
filled to overflowing with these varieties by the aid of 
good decoys and skillful whistling, or of a skiff paddled 
by a cunning fowler ; a gun of 8 to 10 pounds weight, of 
12 guage, with two oz. of N'o. 5 shot, and an equal 
measure of powder, will do the work. But when the 
work is done, comparatively the game is worthless, and 
the sport, as compared with upland shooting, scarcely 
worth the having. 



THE SALMON. 

Sahno Solar, 

This glorious fellow, who is admitted on all hands to 
be the very king of fishes, as regards personal beauty, 
strength, agility, and speed, as regards excellence upon 
the table, and as regards the sport he gives to the vigor- 
ous and skillful angler, is in this month in his prime of 
health, vigor, and perfection, in all those waters of the 
United States and British Provinces, wherein he still 
exists. Within the limits of the former, on the Eastern 
or Atlantic side of the continent, those waters arc 
confined to a few of the noble and limj^id rivers in the 
State of Maine from the Kennebec, eastward, and to one 
cr two large streams of Northern IN'ew York emptying 
into the St. Lawrence. In the British Provinces of J^ew 
Brunswick and Canada East, all the waters, whether 
emptying into the Bay of Fundy or the Gulf of St, 
Lawrence, are literally alive with this noble predatory 
fish, to such an extent that an accomplished fly-fisher, 
temporarily resident in the first-named province, ''ofi'er- 
ed in 1850 to back himself, for an^^ reasonable amount 
8 



170 AMERICAN GAME. 

of bet, to kill witli liis own Land, three liundred salmon 
in that river" — the Nepisiguit discharging its waters 
into Bathurst Harbor — " during the month of July next 
ensuing." I quote from a letter of my friend Mr. Perley, 
the able and enterprising author of the " Sea and Kiver 
Fisheries of 'New Brunswick," who adds, on his own 
account, " and with any reasonable luck as to weather, 
w^ould readily win his bet. He took last season, before 
breakfast one day seventeen salmon ; and I have heard 
of thirty being taken in a day by indiflerent fishers." 

Think of this, ye ambitious spirits, who casting deftly 
the long line and the w^inged deceit, pride yourselves on 
basketing your dozen or two of half-pound trout at 
Snedecor's or Carman's on the south side ! Think of 
this — thirty salmon in a day with the fly, and that by 
indiflerent fishers ! Of a truth, the Nepisiguit, the His- 
tigouche, and the Miramichi, must be the paradise ter- 
restrial, or aquatic rather, of the fly-flsher ; nor is it so 
hard a region of attainment, for from Boston the good 
stqamer Admiral plies weekly to the city of St. John, 
and thence, on application to the good sportsman whose 
name I have recorded above, the pilgrim in pursuit of 
piscatorial glory, shall be right easily, and with a good 
will, forwarded upon his way. 

But to return from this brief though not impertinent 
digression, although the salmon is so well known to all 
the dwellers of cities on the Atlantic coast as to require 
no description, yet for the benefit of inland sportsmen, 



THE SALMON. 171 

and those especially, who, residing on the Susquehanna 
and the southern rivers generally, fancy that they possess 
the salmon, in the glass-eye, or pike-perch, I shall 
proceed to insert a brief description of this beautiful 
glory of the rivers of all northern latitudes, alike on the 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and on the northern seas of 
Europe. 

The salmon, fresh run from the sea, on his first 
entrance into the estuaries of the fresh rivers, up which 
he runs to deposit his spawn — of which more anon — is 
perhaps the most perfect in shape of all animals, and the 
most exquisite model of marine architecture in existence. 

The proportions of one in perfect condition, and a 
large fish, are thus given by Sir Humphrey Davy, him- 
self an eminent and eager fly-fisher, as well as a great 
naturalist and philosopher — the length 38J inches — the 
circumference 21 inches, and the weight 22 lbs. 

The head is small and sharpened, the body thence 
increasing gradually to about two-fifths of its length, at 
which 23oint its girth is the greatest, with lines as shapely 
and a curvature as evenly and gracefully swelling as 
those of the entrance of the fleetest ship that ever 
walked the waters. Thence aftward, like the run of the 
same vessel, it tapers far more rapidly and sharply, the 
narrowest point being at four-fifths of its whole length, 
beyond which its broad, flat, deeply forked tail, the 
rudder at once and propeller of this wonderful animated 
machine, expands to a width all but equal to that of the 



172 AMEEICAN GAME. 

broadest portion of the body. The consequence of this 
exquisitely beautiful conformation is a combination of 
vigor, swiftness, and power of resistance to the element 
in which it exists equal to that of any known animal. 
The dart of the salmon in pursuit of its prey, or its 
arrowy rush, on feeling the sting of the barbed hook, is 
comparable to nothing but the velocity of the swallow 
in the air. He runs up any rapids, it matters not how 
swift, or steep, or strong, of the mightiest rivers, with 
scarce an effort ; he leaps all obstacles, whether of mill- 
dams or natural water-falls, not exceeding thirteen feet 
in perpendicular height, as easily as a trained hunter 
tops a quickset hedge ; and, what is perhaps the most 
astonishing proof of his wonderful muscular strength, 
he can retain his station, head on in the teeth of a cur- 
rent, against which the strongest swimmer would not 
presume to struggle, motionless for many minutes 
together, at the end of w^hich a slight and scarcely per- 
cej)tible sweep of the powerful tail gives him, without 
sending him forward, the power of retaining his position, 
as before, for a similar interval of time. 

When fresh from the sea, the upper part of his head, 
and all his body above the lateral line, are of a deep 
cerulean blue, almost black along the ridge, and mellow- 
ing downward into lustrous, pearly azure on the sides, 
the lower parts and belly glitter like burnished silver, 
and the whole fish appears, when newly taken from the 
water, to be cased in such silver and enameled mail, as 



THE SALMON. i i o 

we read of as worn by the tragic lieroines of Tasso'ri or 
Ariosto's poetry. 

A few irregular black spots scattered along tlie back 
and upper regions of liis sides seem to set off by tlie 
contrast the brilliancy of bis general coloring. 

The structural peculiarities of the salmon, by which 
he is distinguished from all other families, are his sharp, 
strong, hooked teeth, and the number and formation of 
his fins. These latter are in number seven, exclusive of 
the tail — two dorsals, on the ridge of the back, the 
posterior of the two being a mere fatty appendage ; two 
pectorals, immediately behind the gills ; two ventrals on 
the sides of the belly about midway the length of the 
fish ; and one anal, midway between the ventrals and 
the under origin of the tail. The peculiarity in their 
formation is that they are all supported by soft-branched 
raySy as they are called, in opposition to the sharp and 
thorny spines, which are found more or less numerous in 
the dorsals, ventrals, and anals of many other families 
of fish — as the perch, the bass, and others, one of which 
is the fish known as the Ohio or Susquehanna salmon, 
but correctly named the pike-perch, or yellow sandre. 

By the number and quality of his fins, therefore, the 
salmon family may be readily distinguished from all 
others ; no other family having the hinder fatty dorsal 
fin. 

By the number of rays in the several fins, the true 
salmon, or sea salmon, may be known from the others 



174 AMERICAN GAME. 

of liis family, as the salmon-trout, or sea-trout, the 
spotted, or brook- trout, the several varieties of lake-trout 
peculiar to the great inland waters of this country, and 
the many other more distantly connected species which 
it is unnecessary here to enumerate, though it may be 
well to state that the White fish of the lakes, the Otsego 
bass, the smelt, and the capelinn, are all of this family. 

These fin rays in the true salmon are as follows : in 
the first dorsal, 15 — second dorsal, — pectorals, each. 
14 — ventrals, each, 10 — anal, 13 — caudal fin, or tail, 21. 

I have been more particular in dwelling on these par- 
ticulars, because I am well aware that there are many 
good sportsmen throughout the country in the habit of 
miscalling many fishes, from ignorance of the true dis 
tinctive marks, who will gladly receive information 
which, as a general rule, can only be obtained from 
costly scientific works, out of the reach of the mass of 
men, and entirely unattainable in remote inland districts. 
A little attention to these distinctions would soon put an 
end to all the confusion now arising from the application 
of the same names to entirely different fishes in different 
sections of the country ; even as a little attention to the 
habits and seasons of the finny, no less than of the 
feathery and fur-clad tribes, would tend at least to j)re- 
vent their indiscriminate and cruel destruction at seasons 
when they are busy in the work of reproduction, and 
when, as it would seem by a special dispensation of 
Providence, they are unfit for the food of man. 



THE SALMON. 175 

Tlie salmon, properly speaking, is neither a salt-water 
nor a fresh-water fish ; a change from one to the other, 
at different seasons of the year, being in his natural 
state necessary to his existence, and in any state to his 
greatest perfection. Tlie salt water and the food w^hich 
they therein obtain, the spawn, namely, and eggs of 
crabs, and other crustaceous fishes, are necessary to him 
for the recruiting and reinvigorating his system after the 
exhaustion consequent on spawning; and to these he is 
supposed to owe his great and rapid growth, the deep 
ruddy color, and the exquisite flavor of his flesh. 

The fresh water of clear, cold spring-fed rivers is 
necessary to him for the reproduction of his species, as 
it is now a proved and recognized fact, that the spawn, 
or eggs, of the salmon cannot be hatched or brought to 
life except in the highly aerated waters of clear, quick- 
running, shallow, fresh streams. 

If the upper parts of all the rivers in the world could 
be closed against the salmon, as in most of our own 
rivers they are by dams and weirs, the salmon would 
cease to exist at all, as they have ceased to exist in those 
rivers whence they are now excluded, but wherein they 
once abounded, as the Delawar^^, the Hudson, and the 
Connecticut, and thousands of others, even to the outlets 
of the small lakes of central l^Gw "^.ork, where they 
were once common. 

In July the salmon begin freely to enter the estuaries 
of the breeding rivers, and after remaining for some 



176 amekic^sjnt game. 

weeks about tlie point wliere the tide turns, and salt and 
fresh water alternates, as if to acclimate themselves to 
the change of temperature, proceed up to the very head- 
waters of the streams they frequent, and there, in the 
gravelly bottoms of the shallow rivulets, deposit their 
eggs, to be matured and ripened by the effects of the air 
and sunshine. Thence they descend to the sea again, to 
recover health and vigor for the ensuing season, but on 
their descent they would not be recognized for the same 
fish which ascended in the previous autumn, as they are 
now lean, flat-sided, big-headed — owing to the diminu- 
tion of the body — dingy-colored, and utterly unfit for 
food. A male salmon, which from his length, should 
have weighed 11 lbs., in condition, being killed in this 
state, was found to weigh 4i lbs. Yet in this miserable 
and useless state, as well as on the very spawning beds, 
when in the actual performance of their natural and 
paternal duties, this noble fish is ruthlessly and wantonly 
massacred to the gradual annihilation of the species, 
and to the extinction not only of an admirable and 
athletic sport, but of a considerable source of national 
wealth, and a valuable branch of domestic and foreign 
trade. 

Now it is by no means necessary, either to abstain 
from taking salmon, in almost unlimited quantities at 
the proper season, that is to say, while they are running 
up the rivers in summer and early autumn, provided 
only that the whole channel is not obstructed by stake- 



THE SALMON. 1T7 

nets, or to abolisli mill-dams in toto, in order to prevent 
the destruction, and even insure the abundance of this 
noble fish in the waters whence it is so rapidly disap- 
pearing. Only abstain from killing it on the spawning- 
beds, when it is in the act of reproducing its kind, or 
when it is returning to the sea, wea:y and weak, and 
unfit for food — only compel, by scrictly enforced law, 
every mill-dam owner to attach to his weir or dam, an 
apron, or sloping descent, of an angle not exceeding 45', 
twelve feet in width, over which the water shall flow in 
a volume of one foot depth, and the fish will speedily 
be found in as great abundance as ever, in all those 
waters from which he has not as yet wholly disappeared. 
Even in those where he is now extinct I believe that he 
could be reproduced b}^ the importation of small fry, 
and if reproduced, of course, preserved to any extent by 
the enforcement of proper laws. While on this subject, 
I would state, that greatly to the credit of the supervi- 
sors of that county, an act has been passed containing 
all the provisions above mentioned, with regard to tne 
Salmon River, in Oswego county, I believe, in the State 
of Hew York ; and I trust that the example thus set 
will be followed, with reference to the Oswego itself, 
and the Seneca, Cayuga, and Skaneateles outlets, in 
which case salmon would be once more taken in the 
heart of the Empire State, and instead of depending on 
Mame and Isew Brunswick for her supj^lies of salmon, 
New York would ere long be enabled to supply her 



178 AlVIEEICAN GAME. 

sister cities on the seaboard with this high-priced and 
favorite dainty. It is singular that in the United States, 
where so mnch attention is given to every other form of 
industry, every other source of national wealth, so little 
has been paid to that very valuable resource, the sea and 
river fisheries. 

But now to turn from the fish to the fishing. This 
sport is attainable on all salmon rivers above tide-water, 
or at about the meeting of the fresh and salt, by the 
sportsman, during the whole of the month of July and 
of August, and on some waters in the earlier part of Sep- 
tember. There are but two ways of taking the salmon 
with the hook usually practiced by sj)orting fisliermen, 
and one of these even rarely as compared with the other 
— the best, most scientific, most orthodox, and most suc- 
cessful, is casting with the artificial fly ; the second, 
which will often kill good fish when the water is too 
foul, after heavy rains or freshets, to allow their rising to 
the fiy, and at the meeting of the salt and fresh, is spin- 
ning or trolling with the minnow, the young trout in its 
parr state, the smelt, or the sand launce, occasionally in 
deep, still pools, the salmon will take a hook heavily 
shotted, and baited with two large dew-worms ; and 
always and infallibly it will greedily seize one baited 
with its own roe potted and preserved with salt. 

The former of these methods is, however, slow, uncer- 
tain, tedious, and inferior both as to sport and success to 
any of the rest. The latter is so deadly and unerring 



THE SALMON. 179 

that it is regarded, by all true brothers of tlie rod and 
reel, in tlie same light as shooting birds on the gronnd 
would be by a genuine shot, as a pot-hunting, if not 
poaching device, unworthy of the sportsman. 

I do not of course speak of kistering or spearing 
salmon, as that is an iniquity which can only be per- 
formed when the fish are spawning, practiced therefore 
neither by the true sportsman, nor the fair trader, but 
only by the greedy, wanton, destructive, cruel brute, 
who slaughters neither for legitimate sport nor for profit, 
but merely for the wanton love of slaughtering. I^or do 
I speak of net fisheries, whether stake-net or seine, for 
these are the methods of capturing salmon for gain, not 
for sport or pleasure. 

It is a singular thing that very little is known of the 
true food of the salmon ; for so rapid is their digestion, 
that when taken their stomachs are always found empty, 
with the exception of a small quantity of yellowish fluid ; 
but it would seem quite certain that while in fresh water 
it must consist j^rincipally, if not entirely, of small fish, 
for the natural water flies, which are the favorite food of 
trout and of themselves also when in their infancy, before 
they have visited salt water, they do not condescend to 
notice on their return to the rivers. 

For what they mistake the large gaudy artificial sal- 
mon flies, at which they rise so greedily on their first 
advent into fresh Avater, it is impossible to conjecture ; 
since there is nothing under heaven to which they bear 



180 A^IEKICAN GAME. 

even a distant resemblance. Sir Humphry Davy conjee- 
tnres tliat they may be actuated by a vague local recol- 
lection, on returning, as they always do, to the identical 
rivers in which they were bred, from the sea, where 
they have been feeding on a totally different prey, of 
the w^ater-ilies which in their childhood they were used 
to take on the surface, and therefore looking to the sur- 
face for their food, strike at the first thing they see bear- 
ing a remote resemblance to a winged insect. 

The implements necessary to the salmon fly-fisher are 
a powerful two-handed rod, of sixteen to eighteen feet in 
length, composed of ash, hickory and lancewood, or 
spliced bamboo, with a solid butt fitted with a spike — • 
whereby to fix it in the ground erect while changing 
your flies or the like — a large click reel, on no account 
a multiplier, a hundred yards of hair line, a casting line 
of the stoutest, roundest and most even salmon gut, and 
a book of salmon-flies — the numbers, colors and varieties 
of which are endless. 

As good as any, to my mind, is the peacock upper 
and blue-jay under wrings, gay silk body, red hackle 
legs, and bird of Paradise tail ; but the truth is, that 
almost anything large and gaudy will take salmon, if 
deftly and skillfully dropped at the exact time, and in 
the exact place. If they will not take one they will 
another, and the which is wdiich must be discovered by 
experiment. 

Tlie brighter and stiller the water, the smaller and 



TILS SALMON. 181 

more grave colored should be tlie fly, as a general rule. 
Where the river is foul, or the current much broken, 
foamy and rapid, the fly can hardly be too large, or too 
gaily colored. 

For the rest, no writing can teach a man how to throw 
a fly, how to strike a fish when he has risen, or how to 
kill when he has struck him ; practice, patience, perse- 
verance, and coolness are the great requisites, and the 
best way of learning is to accompany a good fly-fisher 
to the brook-side, to observe and study his motions, and 
by example more than by oral instruction to acquire his 
method, and by degrees approach his skill. 

I suppose hardly any one would attemj)t to use the 
double-handed rod, or attempt salmon, who had not first 
learned to throw a cast of flies from the light rod, and 
succeeded in hooking a trout. I will therefore merely 
observe, for the benefit of the trout fisher who makes 
his first essay on salmon, that it is not advisable, as in 
trout fishing, to keep the fly dancing as it were and hov- 
ering on the surface, but to let it sink a little way, pull 
it back with a slight jerk not quite out of water^ and 
then let it sink again, and so on until your cast is finish- 
ed, and you lift your fly for another. Again, when a 
salmon has risen at your fly, you need not strike near so 
quickly, and you must strike much more strongly and 
sharply than at a trout. Colquhoun, in his capital book, 
" The Moor and the Loch," recommends that the sal- 
mon be allowed to turn before striking him, and I 



182 AMEBIC Al^ GA]SIE. 

tliink tlie advice sound and good. When lie is struck 
yon must make him light for every inch of line you give 
him, holding him very hard, but of course giving rather 
than letting him break, you, until he becomes exhausted ; 
if he phmges to the bottom and sulks, you must arouse 
him by stirring the water with a pole or pelting him 
with pebbles, for your " only chance of killing him de- 
pends," to borrow the words of Davy's Salmonia, " on 
his being kept constantly in action, so that he may ex- 
haust himself by exercise." 

"When he is wearied out, when he turns up his broad, 
bright side exhausted on the surface, let your assistant 
pass the sharp, hooked gaff carefully under him, and 
strike it home by one cool, steady, upward jerk, and he 
is yours. Myself, I prefer to gaff in the solid muscular 
tail, behind the ventral cavity, as affording the best hold ; 
but many good sportsmen prefer to strike in the shoulder, 
as giving more command of the fish — so that he is 
gaffed, however, it matters not much where, for he is 
pretty certainly ashore a moment afterward. I may 
as well here mention that while on a visit in Troy 
recently, I was shown a new spring or click gaff, which 
must unquestionably supersede the old hook. It is 
easy of management, unerring, and can be handled with 
success by the most awkward country lad, and every 
sportsman knows how often he is annoyed by the clum- 
siness of an assistant who merely grazes a beaten fish, 
and goads him into fresh fury, perhaps causing his event- 



THE SALMON. 183 

ual loss, and eliciting nanglitj words from the not then 
gentle fisherman. 

And now, kind reader mine, I have told you whither 
to pass in pursuit of your sport ; I have told you, so far 
as tell I can, how to rise, how to strike, how to kill, how 
to land your fish. 

l^ow I will tell you how to cook him — eat him, 1 doubt 
not, you can without my teaching. 

As soon as he is out of water stun him with a heavy 
blow on the head ; then with a sharp knife crimp him, 
that is, gash him to the bone on both sides with a num- 
ber of parallel transvere cuts, parallel to the line of the 
gills, at about two inches asunder ; hold him up by the 
tail and let him bleed ; cool him for ten minutes in the 
coldest spring or running water you can find at hand ; 
carry him to the pot in which your salt and water — ■ 
nearly strong enough to bear an egg — must be boiling 
like mad ; in with him, and let him boil quantum suff. 
Tlien serve him up, with no sauce save a few spoonsful 
of the water in which he was cooked, and if you please, 
the squeeze of a lemon, or, better yet, a lime — but, " an 
you love me, Hal," eschew the lobster sauce, and the 
rich condiments, as Eeading, "Worcestershire or Soy, for 
he is rich enough without, and they will but kill his 
natural flavor, and undo his delicacy. 

And so adieu, and good luck to you ! Take my ad- 
vice, and when night cometli you may boast that you 
have fished well, and dined siipi'cincly. 



184: AMEEICxVN GAME. 

I may liere add, for tlie information of whom it may 
concern, that my friend. Captain Peel, better known as 
Dinks, a famous sportsman and salmon fisher, has hired 
the exclusive fishing of one of the finest salmon rivers in 
Canada IV est, on which a good fisherman may bag from 
six to twenty well-fed fish per diem. The river affords 
admirable fishing for six or seven rod, is carefully pre- 
served by Captain Peel, who keeps a regular game- 
keeper on it ; and is easily accessible from Quebec. 

Captain Peel makes up a party to go thither and fish 
annually, furnishing all appliances and means to boot, 
lodging, after forest fashion, in comfortable shanties ; 
board of tlie best that can be obtained, including excellent 
port, sherry, and bottled ale ; boats, men, everything in 
short, rods only excepted, that is requisite to the genu- 
ine sportsman, at the very small price of $120 per month. 

The scenery of the Lower St. Lawrence is magnificent, 
the climate delicious, the fishing the finest in the world. 
The expense is ridiculously cheap as compared with the 
inducements offered, nor can I imagine a more delightful 
or cheaper mode of passing a couple of summer months 
than any sportsman can obtain by addressing Captain 
Peel, Amherstburg, Canada West. 



VII. 
JULY. 

Cj)c |.iucrit;iii Haokfltli 

Scolopax Minor. 

IFIE BLIND SNIPE ; MUD SNIPE, &o. 

DURING THE SUMMER— CANADA TO VIRGINIA. 
iJLTRING THE WINTER— SOUTHERN STATES TO MEXICO 



THE AMERICAlSr WOODCOCK. 

Scolopax Minor. 

TuE American Woodcock, Scolopax minor, or, as it 
has been subdistinguished by some naturalists, from tbe 
peculiar form of its short, rounded wing, the fourth 
and fifth quills of which are the longest, Microptera 
Americana, is, as the latter title indicates, exclusively 
confined to this hemisphere and continent. It is much 
smaller than its European namesake, being very rarely 
killed exceeding eight or nine ounces in weight, and 
sixteen inches in extent from tip to tip of the expanded 
wings ; whereas the European cock averages full twelve 
ounces, being often found up to fifteen, and measures 
twenty-five or twenty-six inches. 

In general appearance and color they bear a consider- 
able affinity each to the other ; the upper plumage of 
both being beautifully variegated, like the finest tortoise- 
shell, with wav}^ black lines on a rich brown ground, 
mottled in places with bright fawn color and ash-gray , 
but the breast and belly of the American bird are of a 
deep fulvous yellow, darkest on upper pari and fading tc 



188 AMERICAN GAME. 

a yellowish white at the vent, while its European 
congener has all the lower parts of a dull cream color, 
barred with faint dusky waved lines, like the breast 
feathers of some of the falcons. 

It has generally been believed that the large cock 
of the Eastern continent is never found in America ; and 
all analogy would go to strengthen that belief, for neither 
of the birds range on their respective continents very far 
to the northward, whereas it is those species only which 
extend into the Arctic regions, and by no means all of 
them, that are common to the two hemispheres. Some 
circumstances have, however, come recently to my know- 
ledcre which lead me to doubt whether the laro^e woodcock 
of the Eastern hemisphere does not occasionally find its 
way to this continent, although it is difficult to conceive 
how it should do so, since it must necessarily w^ing its 
way across the whole width of the Atlantic, from the 
shores of Ireland or the Azores, which are, so far as is 
ascertained, its extreme western limit. 

A very good English sportsman resident in Philadel- 
phia, who is perfectly familiar with both the species and 
their distinctions, assures me that during the past w^inter 
a friend brought for his inspection an undoubted English 
woodcock, which he had purchased in the market ; it 
weighed twelve ounces, measured twenty -five inches 
from wdng to wing, and had the cream-colored barred 
breast w^hich I have described. The keeper of the stall 
at which this bird was purchased did not know where it 



TETE AMKRICAN WOODCOCK. 189 

tiad been killed, but averred that several birds bad pre- 
viously been in bis possession, precisely similar to tbis 
in every respect. It is not a little remarkable tbat the 
same gentleman wbo saw tbis bird, and unhesitatingly 
pronounced it an European cock, was informed by a 
S23orting friend that he had seen in Susquehanna county 
a cock, which he was satisfied must have measured 
twenty-five inches in extent, but which he unfortunately 
missed. There is likewise, at this time, in the city a 
skull and bill of a woodcock of very unusual dimensions, 
of which I am promised a sight, and which, from the 
description, I am well nigh convinced is of the European 
species. 

It is possible that these birds may have been brought 
over and kept in confinement, and subsequently escaped, 
and so become naturalized in America ; and yet it is 
difiicult to conceive that persons should have taken the 
trouble of preserving so stupid and uninteresting a bird 
as the woodcock in a cage, unless for the j)urpose of 
transporting them from one country to another in order 
to the introduction of new species. 

This might be done very easily with regard to some 
species, and with undoubted success ; and it has greatly 
surprised me that it has never been attempted with 
regard to our American woodcock, which might unques- 
tionably be naturalized in England with the greatest 
facility ; where it would, I have no doubt, multiply 
extraordinarily, and become one of tiie most numerous 



190 AMERICAN GAME. 

and valuaWo species of game, as the mildness of the 
winters in ordinary seasons would permit the bird to 
remain perennially in the island, without resorting to 
migration in order to obtain food. 

The woodcock and snipe can both be very readily 
domesticated, and can easily be induced to feed on bread 
and milk reduced to the consistency of pulp, of which 
they ultimately become extremely fond. This is done at 
first by throwing a few small red worms into the bread 
and milk, for whicli the birds bore and bill, as if it 
were in their natural muddy soil. 

In all countries in which any species of the woodcock 
is found, it is a bird essentially of moderate climates, 
abhorring and shunning all extremes of temperature, 
wdiether of heat or of cold. 

With us, it winters in the Southern States from Yir- 
ginia, in parts of which, I believe, it is found at all sea- 
sons of the year, through the Carolinas, Georgia and 
Florida to Louisiana and Mississippi, in the almost 
impenetrable cane-brakes and deep morasses of which it 
finds a secure retreat and abundance of its favorite food, 
during the inclement season, which binds up every 
stream and boggy swamp of the Middle and New 
England States in icy fetters. 

So soon, however, as the first indications of spring 
commence, in those regions of almost tropical heat, the 
woodcock wings its way with the unerring certainty of 
instinct which guides him back, as surely as the magnet 



THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 191 

poiiits to the pole, to the very wood and the very brake 
of the wood in which he was hatched, and commences 
the duties of nidiiication. 

I am inclined to believe that the woodcock are already 
paired when they come on to the northward ; if not, 
they do so without the slightest delay, for they unques- 
tionably begin to lay within a week or two after their 
arrival, sometimes even before the snow has melted from 
the upland. Sometimes they have been known to lay so 
early as February, but March and the beginning of 
April are their more general season. Their nest is very 
inartificially made of dry leaves and stalks of grass. 
The female lays from four to five eggs, about an incli 
and a half long, by an inch in diameter, of a dull clay 
color, marked with a few blotches of dark brown inter- 
spersed with splashes of faint purple. It is a little 
doubtful whether the woodcock does or does not rear a 
second brood of young, unless the first hatching is 
destroyed, as is very frequently the case, by sprmg 
floods, which are very fatal to them. In this case, they 
do unquestionably breed a second time, for I have 
myself found tho. young birds, skulking about like young 
mice in the long grass, unable to fly, and covered with 
short blackish down, the most uncouth and comical look- 
ing little wretches imaginable, during early July shoot- 
ing ; but it is on the whole my opinion that, at least on 
early seasons, they generally raise two broods ; and this, 



1J)2 AMERICAN GAME. 

among others, is one cause of my very strong desire to 
see smnmer woodcock shooting entirely abolished. 

Unless this is done, I am convinced beyond doubt 
that before twenty years have elapsed the woodcock will 
be as rare an animal as a wolf between the great lakes 
and the Atlantic sea-board, so ruthlessly are they perse- 
cuted and hunted down by pot-hunters and poachers, for 
the benefit of restaurateurs and of the lazy, greedy 
cockneys w^ho support them. There is, however, I fear, 
little hope of any legislative enactment toward this 
highly desirable end ; for too many even of those who 
call themselves, and who ought to be, true sportsmen, 
are selfish and obstinate on this point, and the name of 
the pot-hunters is veritably legion. Moreover, it is to be 
doubted whether, even if such a statute were added to 
our game-laws, it could be enforced ; so vehemently 
opposed do all the rural classes, who ought to be the 
best friends of the game, show themselves on all occa- 
sions to any attempt toward preserving them, partly 
from a mistaken idea that game-laws are of feudal 
origin and of aristocratic tendency ; and so averse are 
they to enforce the penalties of the law on ofi*enders, 
from a servile apprehension of giving ofi'ense to their 
neighbors. 

At present, in almost all the States of which the wood- 
cock is a summer visitant, either by law or by prescrip- 
tion, July is the month appropriated to the commence- 
ment of their slaughter ; in New York the first is the 



THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 193 

day, in 'New Jersey the fifth, and in all the Middle 
States, with the single exception of Delaware, where it 
is deferred until August, some day of the same month is 
fixed as the termination of close time. Even in Dela- 
ware the exception is rendered nugatory, by a provision 
permitting every person to shoot on his own grounds, 
whether in or out of season, in consequence of which 
the birds are all killed off early in June. 

It may now be set down almost as a rule, that in all 
the Atlantic seaboard counties, and, indeed, every where 
in the vicinity of the large cities and great thorough- 
fares, the whole of the summer hatching is killed off 
before the end of July, with the exception of a few 
scattered stragglers, which have escaped pursuit in some 
impenetrable brake or oozy quagmire which defies the 
foot of the sportsman ; that few survive to moult, and 
that tlie diminished numbers, which we now find on our 
autumn shooting-grounds, are supj^lied exclusively by 
the northern and Canadian broods, which keep success- 
ively flying before the advancing cold of winter, and 
sojourning among us for a longer or a shorter period, ere 
they wing their way to the rice-fields of the Savannah, 
or the cane-brakes of the Mississippi. 

If my method could be generally adopted, of letting 
the fifteenth day of September, after the moulting season 
is passed, and when the birds are beginning again to 
congregate on their favorite feeding-grounds, be the 
commencement of every sort of upland shooting, with- 
9 



194 AMEKICAN GAME. 

out any exception, the sport would be enormous ; the 
birds at that season are in full vigor, in complete plu- 
mage, in the perfection of condition for the table, and 
are so strong on the wing, so active and so swift, that no 
one could for a moment imagine them to be the same 
with the miserable, puny, half-fledged younglings, which 
any bungling boy can butcher as he pleases, with the 
most miserable apparatus, and without almost as well as 
with a dog, during the dog-days of July. 

The weather is, moreover, cool and pleasant, and in 
every way well-suited to the sport at this season ; dogs 
have a chance to do their work handsomely and well, 
and the sportsman can do his work, too, as he ought to 
do it, like a man, walking at his proper rate, unmolested 
by mosquitoes, and without feeling the salt perspiration 
streaming into his eyes, until he can hardly brook the 
pain. 

But no such liope existing as that state legislatures, 
dependent, not on rational but on brute opinion, should 
condescend to hear or listen to common sense, on 
matters such as game laws, are we, or are we not, to 
abandon our plan, to sacrifice our knowledge and 
enlightened views on this subject to obstinate ignorance ; 
or shall we not take the better part, and decide, accord- 
ing to Minerva's lesson in Tennyson's magnificent 
^none, 

. . . For that right is right to follow right 
Where wisdom is the scorn of consequence. 



THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 195 

We shall resist and persist ; at least I shall — I, Frank 
Forester, who never in my life have killed a bird out of 
season intentionally, and who never will — who am com- 
pelled by sham sportsmen, cockney and pot-gunners to 
shoot woodcock in July ; who have been invited, times 
out and over again, to shoot cock on Tiien's own ground, 
and therefore within the letter of the law, in New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, before the 
season ; who have ever refused to take the advantages, 
which every one takes over me ; and who still intend to 
persist, though not to hope, that there may be sense 
enough, if not integrity, among the legislatures of the 
free states, to prevent the destruction of all game within 
their several jurisdictions. 

As the thing stands — and by the thing I mean the law 
— woodcock are to be shot on or about the first day of 
July ; and if, dear reader, you try to shoot any where 
within fifty miles of New York, or twenty-five of Phila- 
delphia, much later than the tenth of June, I am inclined 
to think that you will find • wonderfully little sport ; 
before the season, do not fire a shot, if you will take my 
advice ; if poachers will violate the law, and the law will 
not enforce itself against poachers, abstain from becom- 
ing a poacher yourself, and do not shoot before the 
season fairly commences. 

At this period of the year woodcock are almost inva- 
riably found in the lowlands ; sometimes, as, for instance, 
at Salem, in JSTew Jersey, and many other similar locali- 



196 AMERICAN GAME. 

ties alons: tlie low and level shores of the Delaware, in 
the wide. ojDen meadows, where there is not a bush or 
brake to be seen for miles ; but more generally in low, 
swampy woods, particularly in maple woods, which have 
an undergrowth of alder ; along the margin of oozy 
streamlets, creeping througli moist meadows, among 
willow thickets ; and in wet pastures trampled by cattle, 
and set here and there with little brakes, which afford 
them shade and shelter during the heat of the day. 

Of the latter descrij^tion is the ground, once so famous 
for its summer cock-shooting, known as " the drowned 
lands," in Orange County, ISTew York, extending for 
miles and miles along the margins of the Wallkill and 
its tributaries, the Black Creek, the Quaker Creek, and 
the beautiful Wawayanda. Many a day of glorious 
sport have I had on those sweet level meadows, enjoyed 
with friends long since dispersed and scattered, some 
dead, untimely, some in far distant lands, some false- 
and some forgetful, and thou, true-hearted, honest, merry- 
brave, Tom Draw ; thou whilom king of hosts and 
emperor of sportsmen, thou, saddest fate of all, smitten, 
or ere thy prime was passed away, by the most fearful 
visitation that awaits mankind — the awful doom of 
blindness ! never again shall I draw trigger on those 
once loved levels — the railroad now thunders and 
whistles close beside them, and every man and boy and 
fool, now sports his fowling-piece ; and not a woodcock 
on the meadows but, after running the gauntlet of a 



THE AMEEICAN WOODCOCK. V.)l 

hundred shots, a hundred volleys, is consigned to the 
care of some conductor, by him to be delivered to Del- 
monico or Florence, for the benefit of fat, greasy 
merchant-princes ; and if it were not so, if birds, 
swarmed as of yore in every reedy slank, by every alder- 
brake, in every willow tuft, the ground is haunted by 
too many recollections, rife with too many thick-suc- 
ceeding memories to render it a fitting place, to me at 
least, for pleasurable or gay pursuits. 

But, as I have said before, summer cock-shooting on 
the Drowned Lands of Orange County is among the 
things that have been — one of the stars that have set, 
never to be relumed, in the nineteenth century ; and the 
glory of " the Warwick Woodlands" has departed. 

In Connecticut, in some parts, there is very good 
summer cock-shooting yet ; and also in many places in 
the neighborhood of Philadelphia, in the rich alluvial 
levels around the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and their 
tributary rivers ; but the sportsman, who really thirsts for 
fine shooting — shooting such as it does the heart good to 
hear of — must mount the iron-horse, whose breath is the 
hissing steam, and away, fleeter even than the wings of 
the morning, for Michigan and Illinois and Indiana, for 
the willow-brakes of Alganac, and the rice-marshes ot 
Lake St. Clair ; and there he may shoot cock till his 
gun-barrels are red-hot, and his heart is satiate of bird- 
slaughter. 

It is usual at this season to shoot cock over pointers or 



198 AMERICAN GAME. 

setters, according to individual preference of this or that 
race of dogs ; for myself, of the two, I prefer the setter, 
as in cock-shooting there is always abundance of water 
to be had, and this rough- coated, high-strung dog can 
face brakes and penetrate coverts, which play the 
mischief w^ith the smooth satiny skin of the high- blooded 
pointer. 

In truth, however, neither of these, but the short- 
legged, bony, red and white cocking-spaniel, is the true 
dog over which to shoot summer woodcock ; and no one, 
I will ansAver for it, who has ever hunted a good cry of 
these, will ever again resort either to setter or pointer 
for this, to them, inappropriate service. 

The true place for these dogs is the open plain, the 
golden stubble, the wide-stretching prairie, the highland 
moor, where they can find full scope for their heady 
courage, their wonderful fleetness, their unwearied 
industry, and display their miracles of staunchness, 
steadiness, and nose. 

In order to hunt these dogs on cock, you must unteach 
them some of their noblest faculties, you must tame 
down their spirits, shackle their fiery speed, reduce 
them, in fact, to the functions of the spaniel, which is 
much what it would be to train a battle charger to bear 
a pack-saddle, or manage an Eclipse into a lady's 
ambling palfrey. 

Tlie cocking-spaniel, on the contrary, is here in his 
very vocation. Ever industrious, ever busy, never rang- 



I 



THE AMEKICAN WOODCOCK. 199 

ing above twenty paces from Lis master, bustling round 
every stumj), prying into every fern-bush, worming liis 
long, stout body, propped on its short, bony legs, into 
the densest and most matted cover, no cock can escape 
him. 

See ! one of them has struck a trail ; how he flourishes 
his stump of a tail. IS^ow he snuffs the tainted ground ; 
what a rapture fills his dark, expressive eye. Isow he is 
certain ; he pauses for a moment, looks back to see if 
his master is at hand; "Yaff! yaif!" the brakes ring 
with his merry clamor, his comrade rushes to his aid 
like lightning, yet pauses ever, obedient to the whistle, 
nor presses the game too rashly, so that it rise out of 
distance. Up steps the master, with his thumb uj^on the 
dexter hammer, and his fore-finger on the trigger-guard. 
Now they are close upon the quarry; "yaff! yafi"! 
yaff!" Flip flap! up springs the cock, with a shrill 
whistle, on a soaring wing. Flip flap ! again — there are 
a couple. Deliberately prompt, up goes the fatal tube — 
even as the butt presses the shoulder, trigger is drawn 
after trigger. Bang ! bang ! the eye of faith and the 
finger of instinct have done their work, duly, truly. 
The thud of one bird, as he strikes the moist soil, tells 
that he has fallen ; the long stream of feathers floating 
in the still air through yonder open glade, announces 
the fate of the second ; and, before the butt of the gun, 
drcj)ped to load, has touched the ground, without a w^ord 
or question, down charged at the report, the busy little 



200 AMERICAN GAME. 

babblers are couclied silent in the soft, succulent young 
grass. Loaded once more, " Hie ! fetch !" and what a 
race of emulation — mouthing their birds gently, yet 
rapturously, to inhale best the delicate aroma, not biting 
them, each cocker has brought in his bird, and they and 
you, gentle reader, if you be the happy sportsman who 
possesses such a brace of beauties, are rewarded ade- 
quately and enough. 

For the rest, a short, wide-bored, double-barrel, an 
ounce of N'o. 8 shot, and an equal measure of Brough's 
diamond-grain, will do the business of friend microptera^ 
as effectually, at this season, as a huge, long, old-fathion- 
ed nine-pounder, with its two ounce charge ; and it will 
give you this advantage, that it shall weigh less by three 
pounds, and enable you to dispense with a superfluous 
weight of shot, which on a hot July day, especially if 
you be at all inclined to what our friend Willis calls 
jpinguitude^ will of a necessity produce much exudation, 
and some lassitude. 



VIII. 
AUGUST. 



til]c MooiJ giich ; or Summer §mk 

Avas, siva Dendronessa Sporisa 
THE UNITED STATES; CANADA TO MEXICO. 



^\lt ^lucrixmi gecr. 



Cercus Virginiajiiia. 
AMERICAN CONTINENT— NEW BRUNSWICK TO MEXICO. 



THE SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK. 

Anas Sponsa. 

This lovely species of tlie most beautiful of the whole 
Duck tribe, is j)eculiar to the continent and isles of 
America, being familiarly known through almost every 
portion of the United States, and according to Wilson, 
common in Mexico and the West India Islands. In 
Florida it is very abundant, as it is, more or less, on all 
the fresh waters so far north as the interior of the State 
of ]^ew York ; in the colder regions, to the north-east- 
ward, though not unknown, it is of less frequent occur- 
rence than in more genial climates. 

Its more correct title, " Summer Duck," is referable 
to the fact, that it is not, like most of the Anatides and 
Fuligulce^ fresh water and sea ducks, more or less a bird 
of passage, retiring to the fastnesses of the extreme north, 
for the purposes of nidification, and rearing its young ; 
but, wherever it abounds, is a permanent citizen of the 
land, raising its family in the very place where itself was 
born, and not generally, if undisturbed, moving very far 



204 AlMEIilCAN GAME. 

from its native liaunts. I think, liowever, that in the 
United States it is perhaps better known under its other 
appellation of Wood Duck ; and I am not prepared to 
say, although the former is the specific name adopted by 
all naturalists, that the latter is not the better, as the 
more distinctive title, and applying to a more remarka- 
ble peculiarity of the bird. For it, alone, so far as I 
know, of the Duck family, is in tlie habit of perching 
and roosting on the upper branches of tall trees, near 
water-courses, and of making its nest in the holes and 
hollows of old trunks, overhanging sequestered streams 
or woodland pools, often at a great height above the sur- 
face of the water. 

The Summer Duck is the most gayly attired of the 
whole family ; it has, moreover, a form of very unusual 
elegance, as compared with other ducks ; and a facility 
of flight, and a command of itself on the wing, most un- 
like to the ponderous, angular flapping of the rest of its 
tribe, wheeling with a rapidity and power of pinion, ap- 
proaching in some degree to that of the swallow, in and 
out among the branches of the gnarled and tortuous pin- 
oaks, whose shelter it especially afiects. 

From two very fine specimens, male and female, now 
before me, I take the following descrij^tion ; 

Drake, in full summer plumage. Length from tip of 
bill to tip of tail, 21 inches. Length of wing, 9 inches. 
Bill, 1 1-5 inch. Tarsus, 1 J. Middle toe, 2 inches. Body 
long, delicately shaped, rounded. Head small, finely 



THE SUISIMEE DUCK. 205 

crested ; neck ratlier long and slender. Eye large, with 
golden-yellow irides. Legs and feet orange-yellow, webs 
dusky, claws black. Plumage soft, compressed, blended. 
Bill orange-red at the base, yellow on the sides, with a 
black spot above the nostrils, extending nearly to the 
tip ; nail recurved, black. 

The colors are most vivid. Tlie crown of the head, 
cheeks, side of the upper neck and crest changeable, va- 
rying in different lights, from bottle-green, through all 
hues of dark blue, bright azure, purple, with ruby and 
amethyst reflections, to jet black. From the upper cor- 
ner of the upper mandible a narrow snow-white streak 
above the eye runs back, expanding somewhat, into the 
upper crest. A broader streak of the same extends 
backward below the eye, and forms several bright streaks 
in the lower part of the crest. Chin and fore throat 
snow-white, with a sort of double gorget, the upper ex- 
tending upward a little posterior to the eye, and nearly 
reaching it, the lower almost encircling the neck at its 
narrowest part. The lower neck and upper breast are 
of the richest vinous red, interspersed in front with small 
arrow-headed spots of pure white. Lower breast white, 
spotted with paler vinous red ; belly pure white. Scap- 
ulars, and lower hind neck, reddish brown, with green 
reflections. Back, tail-coverts and tail black, splendidly 
glossed with metallic lustre of rich blue-green and pur- 
ple. Wing-coverts and primaries brown, glossed with 
blue and green, outer webs of the primaries silvery 



206 AMERICA:?^ GAME. 

wliite ; secondaries glossy blue-black. A broad crescent- 
sliaped band of pure wliite in front of tlie wings, at the 
edge of tlie red breast-featliers, and behind this a 
broader margin of jet black. The sides of the body 
rich greenish yellow, most delicately penciled with nar- 
row close waved lines of gray. On the flanks six dis- 
tinct semi-lunated bands of white, anteriorly bordered 
with broad black origins, and tipped with black. The 
vent tawny white, the rump and under tail-coverts dark 
reddish purple. 

The duck is smaller and duller in her general coloring, 
but still bears sufficient resemblance to the splendid 
drake to cause her at once to be recognized, by any 
moderately observant eye, as his mate. 

Her bill is blackish brown, the irides of her eyes hazel 
brown, her feet dull dusky green. Crown of her head 
and hind neck dusky, faintly glossed wdth green, and 
with the rudiments of a crest ; cheeks dusky brown. A 
white circle round the eye and longitudinal spot behind 
it. Chin and throat dingy white. Shoulders, back, 
scapulars, wing-coverts, rump and tail brown, more or 
less glossed with green, purple and dark crimson. Pri- 
maries black, with reflections of deep cerulean blue and 
violet; outer webs silvery white. Secondaries violet- 
blue and deep green, with black edges and abroad white 
margin, forming the speculum or beauty spot. Uj^per 
fore neck, breast, sides and flanks deep chestnut-brown, 
spotted in irregular luies with oval marks of laint tawny 



THE SUM^IER DUCK. 207 

yellow ; belly, vent and under tail-coverts white, flanks 
and thiglis dull brown. 

The young males of the first season are scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the ducks. 

The Summer Duck breeds, in 'New York and !N'ew 
Jersey, according to the season, from early in April until 
late in May ; in July the young birds are not much infe- 
rior in size to the parents, though not yet very strong on 
the wing. I well remember on one occasion, during the 
second week of that month, in the year 1836, while out 
woodcock shooting near Warwick, in Orange county, 
ISTew York, with a steady brace of setters, how some 
mowers who were at work on the banks of the beautiful 
Wawayanda, hailed me, and, pointing tb a patch of per- 
haps two acres of coarse, rushy grass, told me that six 
ducks had just gone down there. I called my dogs to 
heel, and walked very gingerly through the meadow, 
with finger on the trigger, expecting the birds to rise 
very wild ; but to my great surprise reached the end of 
the grass, on the rivulet's margin, without moving any 
thing. 

The men still persisted that the birds were there ; and 
so they were, sure enough ; for on bidding my setters 
hold up, I soon got six dead points in the grass, and not 
without some trouble kicked up the birds, so hard did 
they lay. It was a calm, bright summer's day, not a 
duck rose above ten feet from me, and I bagged them all. 
They proved to be the old duck and five young birds of 



208 AMERICAN GAME. 

that season, but in size the latter were quite equal to the 
mother bird. 

I consider the Summer Duck at all times rather a less 
shy bird than its congeners, though it may that it is ow- 
ing to the woody covert w^hich, unlike others of its tribe, 
it delights to frequent ; and which perhaps acts in some 
degree as a screen to its pursuer ; but except on one 
other occasion I never saw any thing like the tameness 
of that brood. 

The other instance occurred nearly in the same place, 
and in the same month, I think, of the ensuing year. I 
was again out summer cock shooting, and was crossing a 
small, sluggish brook, of some twelve or fourteen feet 
over, with my gun under my arm, on a pile of old rails, 
which had been thrown into the channel by the hay- 
makers, to make an extemporaneous bridge for the hay 
teams ; w^hen on a sudden, to my very great wonder- 
ment, and I must admit to my very considerable fluster- 
ation likewise, almost to the point of tumbling me into 
the mud, out got a couple of Wood Ducks from the rails, 
literally under my feet, with a prodigious bustle of wings 
and quacking. If I had not so nearly tumbled into the 
stream, ten to one I should have shot too quickly and 
missed them both ; but the little effort to recover my 
footing gave me time to get cool again, and I bagged 
them both. One was again the old duck, the other a 
young drake of that season. 

In the spring, the old duck selects her place in some 



THE SUMMER DUCK. 209 

snug, unsuspicious looking hole in some old tree near 
the water edge, where, if unmolested, she will breed 
many years in succession, carrying down her young 
when ready to fly, in her bill, and placing them in the 
water. The drake is very attentive to the female while 
she is laying, and yet more so while she is engaged in 
the duties of incubation ; constantly wheeling about on 
the wing among the branches, near the nest on which 
she is sitting, and greeting her with a little undertoned 
murmur of affection, or perching on a bough of the same 
tree, as if to keep watch over her. 

The following account of their habits is so true, and 
the anecdote illustrating them so pretty and pleasing, 
that I cannot refrain from quoting it, for the benefit of 
those of my readers who may not be so fortunate as to 
have cultivated a familiar friendship w4th the pages of 
that eloquent pioneer of the natural history of the woods 
and wilds and waters of America, the Scottish Wilson, 
who has done more for that science than any dead or liv- 
ing man, with the sole exception of his immortal suc- 
cessor, the great and good Audubon ; and whose works 
will stand side by side with his, so long as truthfulness 
of details, correctness of classification, eloquence of 
style, and a pure taste and love for rural sounds and 
sights shall command a willing audience. Speaking of 
this bird he says — 

" It is familiarly known in every quarter of the United 
States, from Florida to Lake Ontario, in the neighbor- 



210 AMEKICAN GAME. 

hood of wliicli latter place I have myself met with it in 
October. It rarely visits the sea-shore, or salt marshes, 
its favorite haunts being the solitary, deep, and muddy 
creeks, ponds and mill-dams of the interior, making its 
nest frequently in old hollow trees that overhang the 
water. 

" The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico 
and many of the West India Islands. During the whole 
of our winters they are occasionally seen in the states 
south of the Potomac. On the 10th of January I met 
with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Yirginia. In 
the more northern districts, however, they are migratory. 
In Pennsylvania the female usually begins to lay late in 
April, or early in May. Instances have been known 
where the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a 
fork of the branches ; usually, however, the inside of a 
hollow tree is selected for this purpose. On the 18th of 
May I visited a tree containing the nest of a Summer 
Duck, on the banks of the Tuckahoe River, Kew Jersey. 
It was an old, grotesque white-oak, whose toj) had been 
torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the 
bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hol- 
low and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, 
decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with 
down, doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. 
These eggs were of an exact oval sliape, less than those 
of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained, and of 
the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resem- 



THE SUMMER DUCK. 211 

"bling old polislied ivory. The egg measured two inclies 
and an eiglith by one incli and a half. On breaking one 
of them, the young bird was found to be nearly hatched, 
but dead, as neither of the parents had been observed 
about the tree during the three or four days preceding, 
and were conjectured to have been shot. 

" This tree had been occupied, probably, by the same 
pair, for four successive years, in breeding time ; the 
person who gave me the information, and whose house 
was within twenty or thirty yards of the tree, said that 
he had seen the female, the spring preceding, carry down 
thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten minutes. 
She caught them in her bill by the wing or back of the 
neck, and landed them safely at the foot of the tree, 
whence she afterward led them to the water. Under 
this same tree, at the time I visited it, a large sloop lay 
on the stocks, nearly finished ; the deck was not more 
than twelve feet distant from the nest, yet notwithstand- 
ing the presence and noise of the workmen, the ducks 
would not abandon their old breeding place, but contin- 
ued to pass out and in, as if no ]3ei'son had been near. 
The male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and 
kept watch while the female was laying, and also often 
while she was sitting. A tame goose had chosen a hol- 
low space at the root of the same tree, to lay and hatch 
her young in. 

"The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more 
than three or four individuals together, and most com- 



212 AMERICAN GAME. 

monly in pairs, or singly. Tlie common note of the 
drake i^ peet, peet ; but when, standing sentinel, he sees 
danger, he makes a noise not unlike the crowing of a 
young cock, oe eek I oe eek ! Their food consists princi- 
pally of acorns, seeds of the wild oats, and insects." 

Mr. Wilson states, as his opinion, that the flesh of this 
lovely little duck is inferior in excellence to that of the 
blue-winged teal. But therein I can by no means coin- 
cide with him, as I consider it, in the Atlantic states, 
inferior to no duck except the canvas-back, which is 2i^- 
■mitted facile p7'ineeps of all the duck tribe. Tlie Sum- 
mer Duck is in these districts probably the most grami- 
nivorous and granivorous of the family, not aiFecting fish, 
tadpoles, frogs or field-mice, all of wdiich are swallowed 
with great alacrity and rejoicing by the mallards, pin- 
tails, and other haunters of fresh water streams and 
lakes. 

On the great lakes of the west and north, where all 
the duck tribe feed to fattening on the wild rice and wild 
celery, zizania aquatica and halisneria Ainericana^ no 
one species is better than another, all being admirable ; 
but in the course of an autumn spent on the northern 
shores of Lake Huron and the rivers debouching into it, 
and thence north-w^estward to Lake Superior, I do not 
remember seeing any specimens of this beautiful bird, 
though I feel sure that it cannot but exist in those waters, 
which are in all respects so congenial to its habits. 

Another peculiarity of this species, which I have 



TUE SUIMMER DUCK. 213 

repeatedly noticed, when it lias not been disturbed by 
any sudden noise or the pursuit of dogs, is thus neatly 
touched upon by Mr. J. P. Giraud, Jr., the enthusiastic 
and accomplished ornithologist of Long Island, whose 
unpretending little volume should be the text book of 
every sportsman in the land who has a taste for any 
thing beyond mere wanton slaughter. 

" Often when following those beautiful and rapid 
streams that greatly embellish our country, in pursuit of 
the angler's beau ideal of sport, have I met with this 
gayly-attired duck. As if proud of its unrivalled beauty, 
it would slowly rise and perform a circuit in the air, 
seemingly to give the admiring beholder an opj)ortunity 
of witnessing the gem of its tribe." 

The Summer Duck is very easily domesticated, if the 
eggs be taken from the nest and hatched under a hen, 
and the young birds become perfectly tame, coming up 
to the house or the barn-yard to be fed, with even more 
regularity than the common domestic duck ; nay, even 
the old birds, if taken by the net and wing-tipped, will 
soon become gentle and lose their natural shjTiess. 

In the summer of 1843 I had the pleasure of seeing a 
large flock of these lovely wild fowl perfectly gentle, 
answering the call of their owner by their peculiar mur- 
mur of pleasure, and coming, as fast as they could swdm 
or run, to be fed by his hand. 

This was at the beautiful place of the Hon. Mahlon 
Dickinson, formerly a member of General Jackson's cabi- 



214 AMERICAN G^ySIE. 

net, not far from Morristown, in Kew Jersey, which is sin- 
gularly adapted for the rearing and domesticating these 
ferce natura; since it has, immediately adjoining the trim 
and regular gardens, a long and large tract of beautiful 
wild shrubbery, full of rare evergreens, and interspersed 
with bright, cool springs and streamlets feeding many 
ponds and reservoirs, where they can feed, and sport, and 
breed, as undisturbed as in the actual wilderness ; while 
the adjacent country being all tame and highly culti- 
vated, they have no inducement to stray from their 
abode. 

Beside Summer Ducks, Mr. Dickinson had at the 
period of my visit, Dusky Ducks, better known as Black 
Ducks, Green-winged Teal, Golden-eyes, and, I think. 
Widgeon; but the Summer Ducks were by far the 
tamest, as the Dusky Ducks were the wildest of the com- 
pany. I should long ago have attempted to naturalize 
them on my own place, but that a large river, the 
Passaic, washing the lower end of my lawn and garden, 
from which it would not be possible to exclude them, I 
have felt that it" is useless to attempt it, the rather that 
there is a large patch of wild-rice immediately adjoining 
me, which would tempt them to the water, whence they 
would drift away with the current or the tide, and be lost 
or shot in no time. 

Tlie best time for shooting and for eating these fowl is 
late in October, when the acorns and beech-mast, of both 
of which they are inordinately fond, lie thick and ripe 



THE SUMMER DUCK. 21, > 

on the woodland banks of tlie streams and pools tliey 
love to frequent. And this reminds me of a little sketch, 
illustrative of their habits, taken down almost verhatim, 
from the lips of a right good fellow, and at that time a 
right good sportsman also ; though now, alas ! the un- 
timely loss of the inestimable blessing of eyesight has 
robbed him, among other sources of enjoyment, of that 
favorite and innocent pastime — the forest chase : 

" Are there many Wood Ducks about this season, 
Tom ?" asked Forester, affecting to be perfectly care- 
less and indifferent to all that had passed. '' Did you 
kill these yourself?" 

" There was a sight on them a piece back, but they're 
gittin' scase — pretty scase now, I tell you. Yes, I shot 
these down by Aunt Sally's big spring-hole a Friday. 
I'd been a lookin' round, you see, to find where the quail 
kept afore you came up here — for Fd a been expectin' 
you a week and better — and Fd got in quite late, toward 
sundown, with an outsidin' bevy, down by the cedar 
swamp, and druv them off into the big bog meadows, 
below Sugarloaf, and Fd killed quite a bunch on them 
— sixteen, I reckon, Archer; and there wasn't but 
eighteen when I lit on em' — and it was gittin' pretty 
well dark when I came to the big spring, and little Dash 
was worn dead out, and I was tired, and hot, and thun- 
derin' thirsty, so I sets down aside the outlet where the 
spring water comes in good and cool, and I was mixkin' 
up a nice, long drink in the big glass we hid last sum- 



216 AMERICAN GAME. 

mer down in the mud-hole, with some great cider sper 
rits — when what should I hear all at once but whistle, 
whistlin' over head, the wings of a whole drove on 'em, 
so up I buckled the old gun ; but they'd plumped down 
into the crick fifteen rod off or better, down by the big 
pin oak, and there they sot, seven ducks and two big 
purple-headed drakes — beauties, I tell you. Well, boys, 
I upped gun and tuck sight stret away, but just as I w^as 
dravrin', I kind o' thought I'd got two little charges of 
number eight, and that to shoot at ducks at fifteen rod 
w^as n't nauthen. Well, then, I fell a thinkin', and then 
I sairched my pockets, and arter a piece found two green 
cartridges of number three, as Archer gave me in the 
spring, so I drawed out the small shot, and inned with 
these, and put fresh caps on to be sarten. But jest when 
I'd got ready, the ducks had floated down with the 
stream, and dropped behind the pint — so I downed on 
my knees, and crawled, and Dash alongside on me, for 
all the world as if the darned dog knowed ; well, I 
crawled quite a piece, till I'd got under a bit of alder 
bush, and then I seen them — all in a lump like, except 
two — six ducks and a big drake — feedin', and stickin' 
down their heads into the w^eeds, and flutterin' up their 
hinder eends, and chatterin' and jokin' — I could have 
covered them all with a handkercher, exceptin' two, as I 
said afore, one duck and the little drake, and they was 
off a rod or better from the rest, at the two different 
sides of the stream — the big bunch warn't over ten rods 



THE SU^IMER DUCK. 217 

off me, nor so far ; so I tuck sight right at the big 

drake's neck. The water was quite clear and still, and 

seemed to have caught all the little light as was left by 

the sun, for the skies had got pretty dark, I tell you ; 

and I could see his head quite clear agin the water — 

well, I draw'd trigger, and the hull charge ripped into 

'em — and there was a scrabblin' and a squatterin' in the 

water now, I tell you — but not one on 'em riz — not the 

fust one of the hull bunch; but up jumped both the 

others, and I draw'd on the drake — more by the whistlin' 

ot his wings, than that I seen him — but I drawed stret, 

Archer, any ways ; and arter I'd pulled half a moment I 

hard him plump down into the crick with a splash, and 

the water sparkled up like a fountain where he fell. So 

then I did n't wait to load, but ran along the bank as 

hard as I could strick it, and when I'd got down to the 

spot, I tell you, little Dash had got two on 'em out afore 

X came, and was in with a third. Well, sich a cuttin' 

and a splashin' as there was you nivir did see, none on 

you — I guess, for sartin — leastwise I nivir did. I'd 

killed, you see, the drake and two ducks, dead at the 

first fire, but three was only wounded, wing-tipped, and 

leg-broken, and I can't tell you what all. It was all of 

nine o'clock at night, and dark as all out doors, afore 

I gathered them three ducks, but I did gather 'em ; 

Lord, boys, why I'd stayed till mornin', but I'd a got 

them, sarten. Well, the drake I killed flyin' I could n't 

find him that night, no how, for the stream swept him 
10 



218 AMERICAN GAME. 

down, and I had n't got no guide to go by, so I let Mm 
go then, but I was up next mornin' bright and airly, 
and started up the stream clean from the bridge here, 
up through Garry's back-side, and my bog-hole, and so 
on along the meadows to Aunt Sally's run — and looked 
in every willow bush that dammed the waters back, 
like, and every bunch of weeds and brier-brake, all the 
way, and sure enough I found him, he'd been killed 
dead, and floated down the crick, and then the stream 
had washed him up into a heap of broken sticks and 
briers, and when the waters fell, for there had been a 
little freshet, they left him there breast uppermost — and 
I was glad to find him — ^for I think. Archer, as that shot 
was the nicest, prettiest, etarnal, darndest, long, good 
shot, I iver did make, anyhow ; and it was so dark I 
could n't see him." 

Many of his friends and mine will recognize the char- 
acter, to whom I allude, as he figures largely in the 
pages of " The Warwick Woodlands," from which the 
above extract is taken, of " My Shooting-box," and the 
other sporting scenes of Frank Forester, wherein nothing 
good or generous or kind is related of Tom Draw, that 
does not fall far short of the reality. 

Before closing this article, I will correct an error into 
which I perceive I have inadvertently fallen in the first 
page of it, wherein I said that this duck, alone of the 
family^ has the habit of perching, roosting, and nesting 
on trees. 



THE SUMMER DUCK. 219 

I should have said alone of the American family ; for 
I find a note by Mr. Brewer, the last editor of "Wilson, 
annexed to his article on our bird, which I prefer to 
subjoin instead of merely making a verbal alteration, 
since I doubt not many others are in the same error, who 
will be glad to be corrected in detail. It appears, as 
will be seen below, that, although there are no European 
tree-ducks, nor any other American, there is a family of 
Asiatic and African congeners of our Summer Duck, for 
which an especial name has been proposed, though not 
as yet generally adopted. I might add that the present 
Latin name of our bird, anas sjponsa, signifies, being 
interpreted, the h'ide duck^ from the rare elegance of its 
form and beauty of its plumage — a pretty name for a 
pretty creature. 

"These lovely ducks may be said to represent an 
incessorial form among the anatidcB j they build and 
perch on trees, and spend as much time on land as uj)ou 
the waters ; Dr. Richardson has given this group, con- 
taining few members, the title of dendronessa from their 
arboreal habits. Our present species is the only one 
belonging to America, where it ranges rather to the 
south than north ; the others, I believe, are all confined 
to India. They are remarkable for the beauty and 
splendor of their plumage, its glossy, silky texture, and 
for the singular form of the scapulars, which, instead of 
an extreme development in length, receive it in the con- 
trary proportion of breadth ; and instead of lyiug flat, in 



220 AMERICAN GAME. 

some stand perpendicular to the back. They are all 
adorned with an ample crest, pendulous, and running 
down the back of the neck. They are easily domesti- 
cated, but I do not know that they have been yet of 
much utility in this state, being more kept on account 
of their beauty, and few have been introduced except to 
our menageries ; with a little trouble at first, they might 
form a much more common ornament about our artificial 
pieces of water. It is the only form of a Tree Duck 
common to this continent ; in other countries there are, 
however, two or three others of very great importance 
in the natural system, whose structure and habits have 
yet been almost entirely overlooked or lost sight of. 
These seem to range principally over India, and more 
sparingly in Africa ; and the Summer Duck is the soli- 
tary instance, the United States the nearly extreme 
limit, of its own peculiarities in this divisio)?. of the 
world." 

With this note I close this paper, expressing only the 
hope that the bird will become more largely domestica- 
ted ; as no more beautiful adornment can be conceived 
to the parks and shrubberies of gentlemen, such more 
especially as possess the advantages of small inland 
rivulets, or pieces of ornamental water, whether natural 
or artificial. 



:'i!"l 




THE AMERICAN DEEE. 

Cervus Yirginianus. 

This beautiful and noble animal, formerly so abundant 
in every part of tbe United States, from the Great Lakes 
to tlie ocean, and from the eastern boundaries of Maine 
to the southern limit of their vast empire, is peculiar to 
the continent of America, and differs entirely from each 
of the three European species, with two of which it has 
been at times confounded, and even more markedly 
from all the African and Asiatic varieties. 

The deer of Europe, and of Great Britain in particular, 
fi'om which country we have derived most of our sport- 
ing propensities and traditions, and I might add all our 
sporting nomenclature, consist of three very distinct 
species. These are, first, the Red Deer, which is now 
found only in the Highlands of Scotland, with the 
exception of a few in Somerset and Devon, and the 
extreme western wilds of Ireland. The male of these is 
known as the Stag or Hart, and the female as the Hind. 
This is a magnificent and imposing creature, handsomer 



222 AMERICAN GAME. 

even and more stately than our deer, with branched 
antlers exactly similar to those of onr great western Elk, 
though of inferior size. 

Second, the Fallow Deer, the species usually kept in a 
semi-domesticated state in the parks of the nobility and 
gentry, both as an ornament to the scenery, and as an 
article of luxury for the table. This is a beautiful and 
graceful creature, far less stately than the Eed Deer, or 
the denizen of our forests, but slightly and symmetrically 
moulded, and the very heau ideal of grace and airy 
motion. It has flattened or palmated horns, about mid- 
way in form between those of the Moose and Cariboo, or 
American Keindeer, though, of course, proportionally 
smaller. In color, the Fallow Deer differs materially 
from all the other species, and is itself by no means 
uniform, some individuals being almost black, and others 
nearly white ; the majority are, however, beautifully 
dappled, and some pied, with tints of brown fawn color 
and yellowish white. 

The Fallow Deer is not believed to be indigenous to 
Great Britain, nor indeed to Europe, being, I imagine, 
of oriental origin ; nor is it found any where in a state 
of nature or at large ; being confined exclusively in 
parks or chases of more or less extensive range, often 
including large tracts of forest land ; and it has been 
observed that the wilder the character of the park, and 
the more ])roken and forest-like the nature of the soil, 
especially when it produces heather or fern in abun- 



I 



THE AMEEICAN DEEK. 223 

dance, the wilder and more gamy is tlie flavor of the 
venison. 

The third variety is the Eoe, a native of all the wilder 
and more broken forest regions of Great Britain, both 
north and south, though they are few in number as 
compared with either of the other species. They are 
much smaller than the Eed or Fallow Deer, of a uniform 
reddish-brown color, and are distinguished by small erect 
horns, with a single prong in front. Of the two last 
species the male is known as the buck, the female as the 
doe. 

The American Deer in size, color, the branched for- 
mation of its antlers, and the character of its flesh, most 
nearly resembles the Red Deer of Europe, but is clearly 
distinguished from that animal by some peculiarities in 
its structure and by the shape of its horns. In the 
European Red Deer, the direction of the main stem of 
the antlers is directly backward, all the branches or 
prongs springing from the anterior side and pointing 
forward, the lowest on each side, or brow antler, which 
is the principal defense of the animal against his natural 
enemies, the wolf and dog, bending forward and down- 
ward on the outer side of the brow and eye. 

In the American Deer, the main stem at first inclines 
backward for about half its length, but then turns for- 
ward with a bold curve, and terminates in a sharp 
deflected point, all the prongs, which are sometimes 
themselves bifid, and even trifid, arising from the poste- 



224 AMERICAN GAJNIE. 

rior side, and arising from it in a forward and upward 
direction. Tlie only exception to this is the brow antler 
a short erect spike, which arises from the inner and 
anterior surface of the principal stem. 

In color the American Deer is generally of a reddish- 
brown, or fulvous tint, darker above, and pure white on 
the chin, throat, belly, and inside of the fore-legs, the 
upper parts being more or less diversified with cinereous 
gray, or bluish hairs. These become more numerous 
during the summer, and in the autumn, and during the 
winter the whole animal assumes a grayer tint. The 
ears are margined with dark brown, and are white 
within, the upper side of the tail is of the same color 
with the upper parts in general, and is white below. 
The hoofs are jet black. 

The female is smaller than the male, and hornless, but 
otherwise resembles him exactly ; the fawns are beauti- 
fully spotted with irregular white spots on a fulvous or 
tawny ground. The male is generally known as the 
buck, and the female as the doe ; though, for my own 
part, I consider from their greater analogy to the Euro- 
pean Red Deer than to any other variety, that Hart and 
Hind would be the more correct and sportsmanlike 
nomenclature. This is, however, at best but a subordi- 
nate matter, and need not be insisted on, especially until 
the graver and more important errors in sporting nomen- 
clature, among the birds and fishes especially, have been 
corrected. 



THE AMERICAN DEEK. 225 

The deer has usually but one, never more than two 
fawns at a birth. In the southern parts of the State of 
N"ew York these are for the most part dropped in May 
and June, but further north, somewhat earlier in the 
year. During the rutting season the males are bold and 
extremely pugnacious among themselves, although not 
like the Eed Deer capable of attacking men without 
provocation. The cry of the deer when alarmed is a 
quick, tremulous whistling sound, accompanied by a 
stamp of the foot ; when mortally wounded they will at 
times utter a faint bleat like that of a young calf. 

In its habits the American Deer is, for the most part, 
except in the vast prairies of the West, a woodland 
haunter, as, according to Catallus, was the deer of Greece 
and Asia Minor, which, in his comprehensive and 
picturesque compound he describes as sylvicultrix, the 
haunter of the woodlands, and in this respect it differs 
from the Ked Deer of Great Britain, which prefers the 
difficult and craggy mountain-tops, or the far-extended 
downs covered with waving heather to the dark pine 
woods of the Scottish Highlands, or the beautiful oak 
coppices of Devonshire. 

By law the killing of the American Deer has gene- 
rally been restricted in most States to the months between 
August and December, both inclusive, but so rapid is 
the progress of annihilation going on with these beauti- 
ful animals that in some counties of 'New York the only 
months during which it is lawful to take them, are Sep- 
10^ 



226 AMERICAN GAME. 

tember, October, and IN'ovember. All legislation, how- 
ever, on the subject of game preservation would seem to 
be hopeless, so long as the whole tone and spirit of the 
popular mind of the masses is regularj set against their 
enforcement. Nothing, indeed, is more singular or more 
to be lamented than the strange perversion of intellect 
which seems to have come over the whole body of the 
white settlers of North America, whether of Canada, 
New Brunswick, the Atlantic States, or the far West, 
leading them to wage incessant and merciless war on 
every wild animal, whether of fur, fin, or feather, 
slaughtering them at all times, and in all places, in 
season and out of season ; when their flesh is nutritive 
and delicious, when it is utterly unfit for the food of 
man ; when their peltries or feathers are commercially 
valuable, when they are worthless; slaughtering them 
wantonly and recklessly for the mere love of slaughter, 
and often leaving their carcases to decay in the depths 
of the forest, until they are becoming all but extinct, as 
in a few years they unquestionably will, unless sounder 
7iews shall hereafter prevail. Tlie willful waste and 
wanton annihilation of the bufialo in the "West ; the 
knocking on the head of the deer, in New York and 
Pennsylvania, with clubs, by snow-shoe mounted ruffians, 
during the deep snows of winter, when their flesh and 
nides are alike valueless — and that literally by tens of 
thousands ; and the sweeping the spawning beds of the 
salmon vv^itli the seine, and persecuting the sjient and 



THE AilERICAN DEER. 22T 

worthless fish with spear and torch, till they have disap- 
">eared from their most favorite rivers in the British 
Provinces, are all forms of this same wanton, wicked, I 
had well nigh said fiendish spirit, which is really a char- 
acteristic, as I have observed, of the white settler of 
every part of America. 

It is an absurdity to say that the spread of civilization 
and culture has destroyed the game, for it is a well- 
known fact that game of all sorts increases in the very 
same ratio in which cultivation increases, if left unmo- 
lested in their seasons of reproduction, nesting, spawn- 
ing, or tending their helpless young, so long as a suffi- 
ciency of woodland is left to afford them shelter. 

In Scotland, the Eed Deer, which are strictly pre- 
served, so far as the prohibition to kill them out of 
season goes, but neither fed, tended, nor herded, are and 
have been for years rapidly on the increase ; and it 
would probably be within the mark to say that there are 
at this instant fifty times as many Eed Deer in the small 
space to the northward of the Highland line, than in all 
the States between Maine and the Delaware. In the 
eastern and northern parts of Maine, they are still plen- 
tiful despite the sedulous efforts of the lumber-men to 
annihilate the race, and the occasional devastation of the 
wolves. In the northern parts of Vermont, Massachu- 
setts, and Connecticut, a few are still to be found, though 
they are but as individuals compared to the vast herds 
which were wont to roam those green glades and wild 



228 AMERICAN GAME. 

mountaiu pastures. "With the exception of a few on 
Long Island, in the northern comities, and about the still 
wild banks of the Delaware, in New York, they are 
already extinct. In ^N^ew Jersey, with a small wretched 
remnant of the once as abundant heath-hen, prairie-fowl, 
or pinnated grouse, a few straggling deer may still be 
found in that remote and little traversed region called 
from its prevailing growth, the pines, lying along the 
Atlantic coast. Elsewhere they exist not. To the west- 
ward of Pennsylvania, and through the South, even so 
far as Texas and 'New Mexico, through the West to the 
Kocky Mountains, and northward through both the 
Canadas, they are still abundant, and will continue so, it 
may be expected, for some years to come — in the 
Canadas and the Southern States especially, where the 
laws for their preservation are rigidly enforced, and 
where the greater number of educated men and gentry 
settled throughout the rural districts, have produced 
some effect on the mind of the masses as regards the 
wholesale and useless extinction of game out of season. 

The modes of pursuing and taking this fine animal, 
whether for pleasure or profit, are almost innumerable, 
but of these almost all partake of the poaching or pot- 
hunting system too much to obtain from me more than a 
mere passing notice. 

The first and most generally practiced of these is what 
ia variously called driving, or stand-hunting, in which 
the shooters are placed on the circuit of a certain tract 



THE AilEEICAN DEER. 229 

of woodlands, each one at the debouchure of a deer-path, 
ujDon some lake, streamlet, or road which it may chance 
to intersect, while the interior of the circuit is beat by 
drivers and hounds, which force the deer from the tract 
by one or other of the paths ; and than this, although it 
has, I know, its passionate votaries, I can conceive no 
duller, more poacher-like, or less exciting sport — if sport 
it must be called. 

The standing shivering, or sweltering for hours, as it 
may chance to be in August or in December, at a run- 
way, perhaps not once hearing the hounds even at a 
distance from morn till dewy eve ; perhaps catching for 
a moment the volume of their cadenced cry, only to 
hear it die away in the distance until the crack of a 
remote rifle tells you that the deed is done, and that not 
unto you is the doing of it; perhaps, if you have the 
very best luck of it, hearing the cry come nigher, nigher, 
swelling momently on the ear, hearing the bushes 
shaken, and the dry sticks crackling under a rapid foot, 
and then to complete the whole, seeing a great, timid, 
trembling, helpless beast driven up to within ten feet of 
the muzzle of your shot-gun or rifle, which, after whist- 
ling or bleating at him to compel him to stop short in 
his tracks and stand motionless as a mark for your buck- 
shot practice, you incontinently butcher in cold blood. 

Yet a more scurvy mode than this, of deer-hunting, is 
practiced by night, under the name of fire-hunting, in 
two different ways, either by floating and paddling in 



230 AMERICAN GAME. 

canoes along the margin of streams and brooks to wMch 
the deer come down to feed, having a light elevated in 
the bows upon a plank which partially conceals the 
person of the shooter — or by walking stealthily through 
the woods with a fire-pan supported by a staff, and filled 
with blazing light wood knots, carried before you by an 
assistant, close in whose wake you crawl along, with 
ready gun, prepared for secret murder. Seeing the 
mysterious lights through the glimmering twilight of the 
woods, the timid deer stands at gaze half curious, half 
fascinated, until the strong reflected light falling on the 
balls of his distended eyes, makes them glare out like 
balls of fire, and enables his dastardly associate to point 
the deadly tube directly at the centre of his broad fair 
brow between them, and so to slay him unsuspecting. 

"Worse yet, indeed worst of all, where all are bad and 
base, is the practice borrowed from the Indian, who 
killing not for sport but for necessity, not to gratify the 
hunter's gallant zeal, but to supply his wigwam with 
food for its inmates, at all times killed from ambush, 
and never discharging an arrow but when he was sure of 
killing — is the practice, I say, of lying in ambush by 
some salt-lick, or spring to which the deer comes down 
to drink, and, well concealed to the leeward of his path, 
to shoot him down without difficulty, as without excite- 
ment. 

The more legitimate modes — the only modes to which 
1 think the true sportsman will resort — are deer-stalking, 



THE AMERICAN DEER. 231 

or as it is called still-hunting, in tlie nortli — ^hiinting the 
Hart manfully and gallantly with fleet horses, and a cry 
of well-matched and tuneful fox-hounds, with the blythe 
view halloa, and the cheery blast of the key-bugle, with 
the chivalric sportsmen of the sunny south — and last, 
not least, coursing him with a leash of fleet greyhounds, 
or, better yet, a leash of the tall, wire-haired, rough- 
coated deer-hounds of the Scottish Highlands, over the 
wild and verdant prairies of the West. 

The first of these methods is the only one, which the 
rough, craggy, and mountainous character of the forest- 
land frequented by deer in the ITorthern States, which 
horses cannot for the most part traverse at all, certainly 
not at speed, will allow the hunter to adopt ; and if it 
lack the maddening excitement of galloping over bush, 
bank, and scaur, taking bold leaps, and striding irresist- 
ible over ravine or gully, over fallen tree or rough rail- 
fence, with the fierce music of the hounds stirring your 
brain almost to madness, it requires at least so many 
qualities of skill and science, such quickness of eyesight, 
such instinctive calculation of causes and effects, such 
Indian-like power of following the faintest trail, of 
detecting by the displacement of a yellow leaf, by the 
disordered foliage of a broken bush, or the broken bark 
on a frayed sapling, whither and when, and at what pace 
the object of pursuit has passed that way, that by the 
consciousness of, and confidence in your own self-power, 
eelf-energy, and self-sufiicicncy to all emergencies, tliat 



232 AMERICAN GAME. 

it must be considered as a sport, and as one of a high 
and noble order. To these advantages again are to be 
added the wild and glorious haunts of nature into which 
it leads our vagrant footsteps — the springs, fitted to be 
the baths of brighter nymphs than any of those who 
trod immortal. Dryads or Oreads of Delia's train, by 
which we eat our frugal meal, and with which we qualify 
our temperate cups — the high and liberal mountain-tops, 
visited by a clearer and more lustrous sunshine, fanned 
by a purer and more exhilarating air, than any known to 
the sleek citizen, to which we climb, led by the fierce 
excitement of pursuit ; and then the ruddy watch-fire 
silently blazing in the depths of the mysterious wilder- 
ness before the bark-roofed shanty, before the hemlock 
bed, which shelter and console us after the long tramp 
and the hurried chase — the awakening to the cries of the 
early birds, in the fresh gray of the awakening dawn, 
the delicious bath in the clear basin of the mountain- 
torrent, the woodman's morning meal of trout or venison, 
cooked by the glowing embers, and eaten with no better 
condiments than appetite and exercise and health may 
furnish — all these — all these are the delights which add 
so inspiriting a charm to the North Country still-hunt, 
and half tempt the dwellers of pent cities to abandon 
the culture, the luxury, the companionship, and the civ- 
ilization of gentlemen, for the more congenial toils and 
more inspiriting delights of the woodman's life. 



THE AMERICAN DEER. 233 

That is an aspiration wliich all men, wlio have tasted 
of the freshness, the originality, the primitive elastic 
vigor of the woodland life, untrammeled by no formulae, 
fettered by no false and absurd conventionalities, a life 
emphatically of men^ desire to taste again — yearn after 
it, how eagerly, when debarred from it by the hateful 
necessities of business — and, when they return to it, 
after years of desuetude, greet it as old men would greet 
renewed manhood, or exiles restored home. This is the 
feeling which is so instinct of life, and simshine, and 
breezy freshness in the writings of the earlier and more 
original of England's poets — which prompted one great 
Roman to cry mournfully, " rus^ rus^ quando ego te 
asjpicianh^'' and another to admit half apologetically, as 
if it were in some sort a reproach, " Flwmina amem et 
sylvas mxdosqiie inglorius amnes f^ and in all breasts a 
something of this hunter's spirit, under one form or 
other will burst perennial, until we go whither the weary- 
are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling, ^.ud 
a good spirit it is, in moderation, and good to be 
indulged — and so up with the forest chaunt. 

So it is — yet let us sing 
Honor to the old bowstring ! 
Honor to the bugle horn ! 
Honor to the woods unshorn ! 
Honor to the Lincoln green ! 
Honor to the woodman keen ! 



234: AMERICAN GAME. 

and health, and joy, and success still increasing to the 
bold, the fair, the gallant hunter, as all ill-fortunes and 
most foul reverses to the disloyal pot-hunter, the low and 
sordid poacher of whatever land he be ! 



IX. 

SEPTEMBER. 



C|e iretii-IEiitgcit ^cal, 



Aiuts Cardinensis. 



®Ijt S^«^-®^^J"Sf^ ^^'^^' 



A7ias Diicors. 



CANADA; BRITISH PROVINCES; UNITED STATES* 






rpMm 



■'■V ^^^i 




6 ? 






THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 

A.ias CaroUnensis, 

THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 

Anas Discors, 

}.N this present montli, the sport of duck-sliooting on 
the inland streams, rivers, and lakelets, may be held to 
commence in earnest, as contrasted to the pursuit of the 
same tribes on the outer bays, estuaries, and surf-banks. 
About the end of September, and thenceforth through 
this and the next ensuing month, according to the varia- 
tions of the seasons, and the longer or shorter endurance 
of that delicious time, the most delicious and most gor- 
geous of the whole American year, known throughout 
this continent as Indian Summer, the Mallard, and the 
two beautiful species which we have placed at the head 
of this article, begin to make their appearance on the 
little lakes of the interior, and in the various streams 
and rivers which fall into them, and thence downward to 
the Atlantic seaboard. 

In the vast northern solitudes of the great lakes of the 
northwest, in all the streams of Upper Canada, even to 



238 AMEEICAIT GAME. 

the feeders of Lake Superior, and througliout the western 
country so far south as Texas, and northward to the 
Columbia and the fur countries, the Blue- Winged Teal 
breeds, literally by myriads. Throughout the great 
lakes, it is abundant in the early autumn, becoming 
excessively fat on the seed of the wild rice, with which 
the shallows of all these waters are overgrown, and being 
deservedly esteemed as one of the best, if not the very 
best, of the duck tribe. But it is the first of its race to 
remove from the wild, limpid waters, and wood-embo- 
somed rivers of the great west, to the seaboard tide- waters, 
taking the inland water-courses on their route, rarely 
visiting the actual sea-shores, and proceeding on the 
occurrence of the first frosts, for they are singularly sus- 
ceptible of cold, to the Southern States, where they swarm, 
especially in the inundated rice-fields of Georgia and 
South Carolina, during the winter months. 

The Green-Winged Teal, which is the nearest con- 
gener, and frequently the associate of the Blue- Wing, 
has a far less extensive range, so far as regards its breed- 
ing-grounds, in as much as it never, so far as has been 
satisfactorily shown, has nidificated or jDroduced its 
young south of the great lakes, nor even there in great 
numbers, its favorite haunts for the purposes of repro- 
duction, being the extreme northern swamps and wooded 
morasses, almost up to the verge of the arctic circles. 
It does not come down on its southward migration, at 
liearly so early a period of the autumn as its congener, 



THE GKEEN-WINGED TEAL. 239 

being less susceptible of cold, and tarrying on the Great 
Lakes till the frosts set in with sufficient severity to pre- 
vent its frequenting its favorite haunts with pleasure, or 
obtaining its food with facility. It is rarely or never 
seen in the Middle States during the summer, but is 
tolerably abundant during the autumn on all the marshy 
lakes and pools, and along the shores of all the reedy 
rivers from the Great Lakes downward to the sea-board, 
though, like the last named species, it is purely a fresh- 
water duck, never frequenting the sea-shores or salt-bays, 
finding no food thereon with which to gratify its delicate 
and fastidious palate, which, eschewing fish, the larvse 
of insects, and the lesser crustacce^ relishes only the 
seeds of the various water plants and grasses, the tender 
leaves of some vegetables, and more especially the grain 
of the wild rice, Zizania panicula effusa, which is its 
favorite article of subsistence, and one to which may be 
ascribed the excellence of every bird of air or water 
which feeds on it, from the Eice-Bird and the Rail, to 
the Teal, the Canvass-Back, and even the large Thick- 
Billed Fuligula^ closely allied to the Scoter, the Yelvet 
Duck, and other uneatable sea-fowl of Lake Huron, 
which are scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Red-Heads 
of Chesapeake Bay, the Gunpowder, or the Potomac. 
On the Susquehanna and the Delaware, both these 
beautiful little ducks were in past years excessively 
abundant, so that a good gunner, paddling one of the 
sharp, swift skifls peculiar to those waters, was certain 



240 AMERICAiq- GAME. 

of filling his boat with these delicious ducks within a few 
hours' shooting. Both of these species are rather tame 
than otherwise, the blue-winged bird more particularly 
which has a habit, on the lower waters of the Delaware 
especially, of congregating on the mud in vast flocks, 
sunning themselves in the serene and golden light of a 
September noon, so careless and easy of approach, that 
the gunner is frequently enabled to paddle his skiff 
within a few yards of them, and to rake them with close 
discharges of his heavy batteries. At times, when the 
tide is out, and the birds are assembled on the flats out 
of gunshot from the water's edge, the thorough-going 
sportsman, reckless of wet feet or muddy breeches, will 
run his skiff ashore, several hundred yards above or 
below the flock, and getting cautiously overboard, will 
push it before him over the smooth, slippery mud-flats, 
keeping himself carefully concealed under its stern until 
within gunshot, which he can sometimes reduce to so 
little as fifteen or twenty yards, by this murderous and 
stealthy method. The Green- Winged Teal is much less 
apt to congregate, especially on shore, than the otlier. 
and consequently affords less sport to the boat-shooter, 
keeping for the most part afloat in little companies, or 
trips, as they are technically called, very much on the 
alert, and springing rapidly on the wing when disturbed. 
They, and the Blue- Wings also, fly very rapidly, dodging 
occasionally on the wing, not unlike to a wild, sharp- 
flying Woodcock, and when they alight, darting down 



THE GKEEN-WINGED TEAL. 241 

ward with a slioi't, sudden twist among the reeds or 
rushy covert, exactly after the fashion of the same bird. 

The commoner and, in our opinion — where these birds 
are abundant either along the courses of winding drains 
or streamlets, or in large reedy marshes, with wet soil 
and occasional pools or splashes — far the more exciting 
way of killing them is to go carefully and warily on foot, 
with a good medium-sized double-gun, say of eight to ten 
pounds weight, and a thoroughly well broke and steady 
spaniel, to retrieve and occasionally to flush the birds, 
which w^ill sometimes, though rarely, lie very hard. A 
good sportsman will frequently, thus late in the autumn, 
when the mornings are sharp and biting, and the noons 
warm and hazy, but before the ice makes, pick up, on 
favorable ground, his eight or nine couple in a day's 
walking, with a chance of picking up at the same time a 
few Snipe, Golden Plovers, Curlew, or Godwit ; and this, 
in our mind, is equal to slaughtering a boat load by 
sneaking up in ambush to within twenty yards of a great 
company, whistling to make them lift their heads and 
ruffle up their loosened plumage, so as to give easy 
entrance to the shot, and then pouring into them at half 
point-blank range, a half pound of heavy shot. 

"In the southern States they are commonly taken," 
says Wilson, in '^ vast numbers, in traps placed on the 
small dry eminences that here and there rise above the 
water of the inundated rice-fields. These places are 
strewed with rice, and by the common contrivance 
1:1 



24:2 AMERICAN GAME. 

called a ligure four, tliey are caught alive in hollow 
traps." This we, of course, merely mention as illus- 
trative of the habits of the bird; for, of course, no sports- 
man would dream of resorting to so worse than poacher- 
like proceeding. The mode described by the eloquent 
pioneer of American natural history, is probably prac- 
tised, for the most part, by the negroes for the supply 
of their masters' table, and furnishing their own pockets 
with a little extra change, and is not used by the plant- 
ers as a means of sport or amusement. It must be 
remembered, also, that "Wilson, than whom there is no 
w^riter more to be relied on in matters which he relates 
of his own knowledge, and as occurring in his own days, 
must often be taken cum grano salis^ as to the numbers 
of birds slain in this way or that within a certain time — 
things which he records, probably, on hearsay, and on 
which — we are sorry to say it — even good sportsmen, 
men who on any other subject would scorn to deviate 
one hair's breadth from the truth, will not hesitate to 
draw a bow as long and as strong as Munchausen's. 
Again, he writes of times wlien sporting was but little 
pursued, otherwise than as a method of procuring supe- 
rior food for the table, or for the purpose of destroying 
noxious vermin and beasts of prey ; when the rules of 
sportsmanship were little understood and as little re- 
garded ; and, lastly, wdien game abounded to a degree 
literally inconceivable in our day — although we have 
ourselves seen^ with sorrow, the diminution^ amounting 



THE GKEEN-WINGED TEAL. 243 

in many regions around our large cities almost to ex- 
tinction, of all birds and beasts— nay, but even fisli of 
chase, within the last twenty years. We must be care- 
ful therefore not to charge exaggeration on a writer who 
beyond a doubt, faithfully recorded that which he him- 
self saw and enjoyed in his day; which we might see 
likewise and enjoy in our generation, and our children 
and grand-children after us, if it were not for the greedy, 
stupid, selfish, and brutal pot-hunting propensities of our 
population, alike rural of the country and mechanical ol 
the cities, which seems resolutely and of set purpose 
bent on the utter annihilation of every species of game, 
whether of fur, fin, or feather, which is yet found within 
our boundaries. 

In my opinion, the common error of all American 
fowlers and duck shooters, lies, in the first j)lace, in the 
overloading the gun altogether, causing it to recoil so 
much as to be exceedingly disagreeable and even pain- 
ful and in the same degree diminishing the efi'ect of the 
discharge ; for it must never be forgotten that when a 
gun recoils, whatever force is expended on the retro- 
gressive motion of the breech, that same force is to be 
deducted from the j^ropulsion of the charge. In the 
second place, he erroneously loads with extremely large 
and heavy shot, the result of which is, in two respects, 
inferior to that of a lighter and higher number. First, 
as tliere will be three or four pellets of I^o. 4 for every 
" one pellet of A or B in a charge, and, consequently, as 



24:4: AlklERICAN GAME. 

the load is thereby so much the more regularly distrib- 
uted, aud so much the more likely to strike the object, 
and that in several places more, in the ratio of three or 
four to one, than could be effected by A's or B's. 
Second, as the flesh will constantly close over the wound 
made by a small shot, so as to cause the bleeding to go 
on internally to the engorgement of the tissues and suf- 
focation by hemorrhage ; w^hereas the wound made by 
the large grain will relieve itself by copious bleeding, 
and the bird so injured will oftentimes recover, after 
having fallen even to the surface of the water, or lain 
flapping, as it were, in the death-struggle on the blood- 
stained sand or grassy hassocks. This fact-has been w^ell 
noticed, and several examples adduced to prove its 
truth, by Mr. Giraud, in his exceedingly clear and 
correct, though to our taste, far too brief volume on the 
" Birds of Long Island." 

For my own use I invariably adopt for all the smaller 
species of duck — as the two varieties of Teal, the 
Summer Duck, the Golden Eye, and the Bufiel-headed 
Duck, Aviates, CaroMnensis, Discors, Sponsa, and I^idi- 
gulcB, Clangula^ and Alheola—iliQ same shot which is 
generally used for the various birds known on our shores 
and rivers as bay-snipe, viz : No. 4 or 5— the latter best 
for the Plovers, the former for duck, whether in large or 
small guns. In this relation I may observe that, on one 
occasion — the only one, by the way, on which I ever 
saw a green-winged teal in the summer season — -I killed 



THE GKEEN-WLNGED TEAL. 245 

a couple of these beautiful birds, riglit and left, ^vliile 
woodcock shooting, in Orange County, ^New York, with 
Iso. 8 shot. They sprang quite unexpectedly from behind 
a willow bush, on the Wawayanda creek, and I dropped 
them both quite dead^ somewhat to my own astonish- 
ment, and to the utter astounding of Fat Tom, who 
witnessed it, into the middle of the stream, respectively 
at twenty and twenty-five yards distance. Until I recov- 
ered them I supposed that they were young wood ducks, 
but on examination they proved to be young green- 
winged teal, of that season, in their immature j)lumage. 
This must have been in the last week of July or the first 
of August — it was many years since, and as at that time 
I kej)t no shooting diary, I unfortunately am unable to 
verify the exact date. The birds must, I conclude, have 
been bred in that vicinity, by what means I cannot con- 
jecture, unless that the parent birds might have been 
wounded in the spring, and disabled from completing 
their northern migration, and that this, as is sometimes 
the case with the minor birds of j)assage, might have 
superinduced their breeding in that, for them, far south- 
ern region. In corroboration of this I may add that, in 
the spring of 1846, a couple of these birds haunted a 
small reedy island in front of my house, on the Passaic, 
to so late a day in summer — the 29th, if I do not err, of 
May — that I sedulously avoided disturbing them, in the 
hope that they would breed there. This I yet think 
would have been the case but for the constant disturb- 



246 AMERICAN GAME. 

ance of that lovely river throughout the summer by 
gangs of ruffianly loafers, with whom the neighboring 
town of Newark abounds beyond any other town of its 
size in the known world, boating upon its silvery surface 
day and night, and rendering day and night equally 
hideous with their howls and blas]3hemies. 

Before proceeding to the description of these birds it 
is well to observe that it will be found the better way, 
in approaching them, as indeed all wild fowl, to work, 
if possible, up wind to them ; not that wild fowl have 
the power, as some pretend, of scenting the odor of the 
human enemy on the tainted gale, as is undoubtedly the 
case with deer and many other quadrupeds, but that 
their hearing is exceedingly acute, and that their heads 
are pricked up to listen, at the occurrence of the least 
unusual sound, and at the next moment — hey^ presto ! — 
they are off. 

The little cat at the head of this paper, for the spirited 
and faithful execution of which the author and artist 
must be permitted to return his acknowledgments to his 
friend, Mr. Brightly, represents a favorite feeding-ground 
of the various tribes of water fowl, as is indicated by 
the large gaggle of geese passing over, from right to 
left, and the trip of green-wings alighting to the call of 
a clamorous drake in the background. On a rocky spur 
of the shore, in the right foreground, is a male Green- 
Winged Teal, in the act of springing, with his legs 
already gathered under him ; and, still nearer to the front 



THE GKEEN-WINGED TEAL. 247 

of the picture, on the right, a Bhie-Winged Drake, 
swimming on the limpid water, soliciting his congener, 
with reverted neck, and the harsh gabble — whence his 
name — to take wing and greet the new-comers — it being 
the object of the draftsman to give an idea not merely 
of the markinc^s and form of these two most beautiful 
and graceful of the duck tribe, but of their motions, the 
character of their flights, and the nature of their feeding- 
grounds and habitations. 

The head of the Green- Winged Teal is of moderate 
size and compressed ; the bill nearly as long as the head, 
deeper than broad at the base, dej)ress6d at the tip ; 
neck slender, of moderate length ; body full and 
depressed ; wings rather small, feet short and rather far 
back. 

The plumage is short and blended ; that of the hinder 
head and neck elongated into a soft filamentous droop- 
ing crest. The bill is black ; iris hazel ; feet light blue ; 
head and upper part of neck bright chestnut brown ; a 
broad band of shining rich bottle-green, narrowing from 
the eye backward and downward to the nape, margined 
below with black, anterior to w^hicli is a wdiite line ; 
chin dusky brown. Upj)er parts and flanks white, 
beautifully and closely undulated with narrow lines of 
deep gray. Anterior to the wings is a broad transverse 
lunated white bar — this alone distingicishing the Ameri- 
can froTYh the EuTojpean hird. The wing coverts, scapu- 
lars and quills gray. The speculum bright green above, 



248 AMERICAN GAME. 

blue-black below, margined posteriorly with pure white. 
Tail brownish gray, margined with paler brown. Lower 
part of the neck undulated, like the back. Breast pale 
rufous, spotted and banded with black ; white below* 
Abdomen white, barred with gray. A black patch 
under the tail ; the lateral tail coverts tawny, the larger 
black, white-tipped and margined. Length of male 
bird, 14|.24. Female, 13|.22i. 

The description and drawing of this bird are taken, by 
kind permission, which the writer gratefully acknowl- 
edges, from a fine specimen in the Academy of Natural 
Science of this city. 

The Blue-Winged Teal is rather larger than the above, 
the male measuring 16.31i, the female 15.24:. 

The shape and proportions of this bird clo-sely resem- 
ble those of the latter, but in plumage it widely differs 
from it. The bill is blueish black ; iris dark hazel ; feet 
dull yellow, webs dusky ; upper part of the head black, 
a semilunar patch of pure white, margined with black 
anterior to the eye ; the rest of the head and upper neck 
deep purplish gray, with changeable ruddy reflections. 
The lower hind neck, back, alula, and upper parts gene- 
rally, rich chocolate brown, every feather margined with 
paler tints, from reddish buff to pale reddish gray, with 
black central markings, changing to metallic green in 
the centres. Upper wing coverts rich ultra-marine blue, 
with a metallic lustre ; the lower parts pale reddish 
orange, shaded on the breast with purplish red, and 



THE BLUE-WINGED I'EAL. 249 

thickly spotted with roundish or elliptical black spots ; 
axillary feathers, lower wing coverts, and a patch on the 
side of the rump, pure white; lower tail'coverts brown- 
ish black. 

These, with the exception of the Bufiel-Headed Duck, 
are the two smallest ; with the exception of the Summer 
Duck, the two loveliest ; with the exception of the Can- 
vas-Back the two best of the duck tribe. Well met be 
they, whether on the board or in the field — shot be they 
with No. 4 — eaten roast, underdone, with cayenne and a 
squeeze of a lemon, lubricated with red wine, quantum 
mff. 



X. 
OCTOBER. 



Ortyx Yirginianus. 

THE AMEEICAN PAETRIDGE. 

CANADA WEST; MASSACHUSETTS TO MEXICO. 



Ardea Lentiginosa. 

THE QUAWK. THE DUOTvADOO. 

CANADA; BRITISH PROVINCES; UNITED STATES* 



THE AMERICAN QUAIL, OR VIRGINIA 
PARTRIDGE. 

Ortyx Yirginianus. Perdix Yirginianus. 

]S^ovE]^iBER is upon us — liearty, brown, healtliful ITovem- 
ber, harbinger of his best joys to the ardent sportsman, 
and best beloved to him of all the months of the great 
annual cycle ; J^ovember, with its clear, bracing, west- 
ern breezes ; its sun, less burning, but how far more 
beautiful than that of fierce July, as tempered now and 
softened by the rich, golden haze of Indian summer, 
quenching his torrent rays in its mellow, liquid lustre, 
and robing the distant hills with wTeaths of purple light, 
half mist, half shrouded sunshine ; I^ovember, with its 
wheat and buckwheat stubbles, golden or bloody red ; 
with its sere maize leaves rustling in the breeze, whence 
the quail pipes incessant ; with its gay woodlands flaunt- 
ing in their many-colored garb of glory ; with its waters 
more clearly calm, more brilliantly transparent than 
those of any other season ; iNovember, when the farmer's 
toils have rendered their reward, and his reaped harvests 
glut his teeming garners, so that he too, like the pent 



254 AMEKICAN GAME. 

denizen of swarming cities, may take his leisure with 
his gun " in the wide vale, or by the deep wood-side," 
and enjoy the rapture of those sylvan sports which he 
may not participate in sweltering July, in which they 
are alas ! permitted by ill-considered legislation, in 
every other state, save thine, honest and honorable 
Massachusetts.* 

In truth there is no period of the whole year so well 
adapted, both by the seasonable climate, and the state 
of the country, shorn of its crops, and not now to be 
injured by the sportsman's steady stride, or the gallop 
of his high-bred setters, both by the abundance of game 
in the cleared stubbles and the sere woodlands, and by 
the aptitude of the brisk, bracing weather, for the 
endurance of fatigue, and the enjoyment of manful 
exercise, as this our favorite !N"ovember. 

In this month, the beautiful Huffed Grouse, that 
mountain-loving and man-shunning hermit, steals down 
from liis wild haunts among the giant rhododendrons, 

* A law was passed, during the spring of the present year, in that 
respectable and truly conservative State, by which the murder of un- 
fledged July Woodcock, by cockney gunners, was prohibited ; and the 
close time judiciously prolonged until September. The debate was 
remarkable for two things, the original genius with which the Hon. 
Member for Westboro' persisted that Snipe are "Woodcock, and Wood- 
cock Snipe, all naturalists to the contrary notwithstanding ; and the 
pertinent reply to the complaint of a city member, that to abolish July 
shooting would rob the city sportsman of his sport — viz., that in that 
case it would give it to the farmer. Marry, say we, amen, so be it ! 



THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 255 

and evergreen rock-calmias, to nearer woodskirts, and 
cedar-brakes margining the red buckwheat stubbles, to 
be found there bj the staunch dogs, and brought to bag 
by the quick death-shot, " at morn and dewy eve," with- 
out the toil and torture, often most vain and vapid, of 
scaling miles on miles of mountain-ledges, struggling 
through thickets of impenetrable verdure among the 
close-set stems of hemlock, pine, or juniper, only to hear 
the startled rush of an unseen pinion, and to pause, 
breathless, panting, and outdone, to curse, while you 
gather breath for a renewed effort, the bird which haunts 
such covert, and the covert w^hich gives shelter to such 
birds. 

In this month, if no untimely frost, or envious snow 
flurry come, premature, to chase him to the sunny 
swamps of Carolina and the rice-fields of Georgia, the 
plump, white-fronted, pink-legged autumn "Woodcock, 
flaps up from the alder-brake with his shrill whistle, and 
soars away, away, on a swift and powerful wing above 
the russet tree-tops, to be arrested only by the instinctive 
eye and rapid finger of the genuine sportsman ; and no 
longer as in faint July to be bullied and bungled to 
death by every German city pot-hunter, or every potter- 
ing rustic school-boy, equipped and primed for murder, 
on his Saturday's half holyday. 

In this month, the brown-jacketed American hare, 
which our folk loill persist in calling Bablit — though it 
neither lives in warrens, nor burrows habitually under 



256 A^IEEICAN GAME. 

ground, and though it breeds not every month in the 
year, which are the true distinctive characteristics of the 
Eabbit — is in his prime of conditions, the leverets of the 
season, plump and well-grown ; and the old bucks and 
does, recruited after the breeding season, in high health 
and strength, and now legitimate food for gunpowder, 
legitimate quarry for the chase of the merry beagles. 

In this month especially, the Quail, the best-loved and 
choicest object of the true sportsman's ambition ; the 
bird which alone affords more brilliant and exciting 
sport than all the rest beside ; the bravest on the wing, 
and the best on the board ; the swiftest and strongest 
flyer of any feathered game ; the most baffling to find, 
the most troublesome to follow up, and when followed 
up and found, the most difiicult to kill in style ; the 
beautiful American Quail is in his highest force and 
feather ; and in this month, according to the laws of all 
the States, even the most rigorous and stringent in pres- 
ervation, killable legitimately under statute. 

In New York, generally, the close-time for the Quail 
ends with October, and he may not be slain until the 
first day of November ; in New Jersey, ortygicide com- 
mences on the 25th of October, in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut on some day between the 15th of the past 
and the first of the present month; in Pennsylvania, 
Delaware and Maryland, where they are something 
more forward, as breeding earlier in the season than in 
the Eastern States, on the first of October ; and in 



THE AMERICAN QUAEL. 257 

Canada West, wliere tliey are exceedingly abundant, on 
the first of September ; which is, for many reasons, 
entirely too early, as hereafter I shall endeavor to 
demonstrate. 

In my own opinion, the first of November, and even 
the middle of October, are too late for the termination 
of the Quail's close-time, inasmuch as five-sevenths of 
the broods in ordinarily forward seasons are full-grown 
and strong on the wing, as well as all the crops off the 
ground, by the first of October ; and although the late, 
second, or third broods may be undersized, they are still 
well able to take care of themselves in case the j)arent 
birds are killed ; whereas, on account of their immature 
size, they are safe from the legitimate shot; and, on 
account of their unsaleability in market to the restau- 
rant, from the poaching pot-shot also. 

I should, therefore, myself, be strongly inclined to 
advocate the adoption of one common day, and that day 
the first of October, for the close-time of all our upland 
game ; the English Snipe alone exce]3ted. Touching the 
reasons for postponing the day of Woodcock-shooting, a 
notice will be found in our July number, and an extend- 
ed discussion in my Field Sports, vol. I. pp. 169 to 200. 
Of the Quail, in regard to this point, I have said enough 
here, unless this ; that, in my opinion, there is far more 
need to protect them from the trap during the wintry 
snows, than from the gun in the early autumn ; the 
latter cannot possibly at any time exterminate the race ; 



25S AMEKICAN GAME. 

the former not only easily may^ but actually does all but 
annihilate the breed, whenever the snow falls and lies 
deep during any weeks of December, during the whole 
of which month the pursuit and sale of this charming 
little bird is legal. 

Could I have my way, the close-time for Quail should 
end on the last day of September; and the shooting 
season end on the twenty-fourth day of December ; 
before which date snow now rarely lies continuously in 
New Jersey, Southern New York, or Pennsylvania. 
Why I would anticipate the termination of the close- 
time, in reference to the Ruffled Grouse, I shall state at 
length, when I come to treat of that noble bird, in our 
December issue ; to which month I have attributed it, 
because it is then that it is^ though in my opinion, it 
ought not to he^ most frequently seen on our tables. 
While on the topic of preservation, I will mention a fact, 
which certainly is not widely, much less generally 
known, among farmers ; namely, that this merry and 
domestic little bird is one of his best friends and assist- 
ants in the cultivation of his lands. During nine or ten 
months of the year he subsists entirely on the seeds of 
many of the most troublesome and noxious weeds and 
grasses, which infest the fields, more especially those of 
the ragwort, the dock, and the briar. It is believed, I 
might almost say ascertained, that he never plucks any 
kind of grain, even his own loved buckwheat when ripe, 
from the stalk, but only gleans the fallen seeds from the 



THE AMEEICAN QUAIL. 259 

stubbles after harvest, so that while he in nothing dete- 
riorates the harvest to be ingathered, he tends in the 
highest degree to the preservation of clean and miweeded 
fields and farms ; indeed, when it is taken into consider- 
ation that each individual Quail consumes daily nearly 
two gills of w^eed-seed, it will be at once evident that a 
few bevies of these little birds, carefully and assiduously 
preserved on a farm, will do more towards keeping it 
free of weeds, than the daily annual labor of a dozen 
farm servants. Tliis preservation will not be counter- 
acted or injured by a moderate and judicious use of the 
gun in the autumnal months ; for the bevies need thin- 
ning, especially of the cock-birds, which invariably out- 
number the hens, and w^hich, if unable to pair, from a 
want of mates, form into little squads or companies of 
males, which remain barren, and become the deadly 
enemies of the young cocks of the following year, beat- 
ing them off and dispersing them ; though, strange to 
say, they will themselves never mate again, nor do aught 
after remaining unpaired during one season, to propagate 
their species. The use of the trap, on the contrary, 
destroying whole bevies at a swoop, where the gun, even 
in the most skillful hands, rarely much more than deci- 
mates them, may, in a single winter's day, if many traps 
be set, destroy the whole stocking of a large farm for 
years, if not forever. I have myself invariably remark- 
ed, since my attention was first called to the fact, that 
those farms which are best stocked with Quail, are inva- 



260 A^IEKICAN GAME. 

riablj the cleanest of weeds ; and a riglit good sports- 
man, and good friend of mine, working on the same base 
per contra^ says that, in driving liis shooting-cart and 
dogs through a country, he has never found it worth his 
Avhile to stop and beat a district full of weedy and dirty 
farms, as such never contain Quail. 

If this may lead our farmers to consider that every live 
Quail does far more good on the farm, than the shilling 
earned by his capture in the omnivorous trap ; and 
therefore to prohibit their sons and farm-boys from exter- 
minating them at their utmost need, when food is scarce, 
and shelter hard to find, my words will not have been 
altogether wasted, nor my object unattained. 

Were I a farmer, I would hang it over my kitchen 
fire-place, inscribed in goodly capitals — " Spare the 
Quail ! If you would have clean fields and goodly crops, 
spare the Quail ! So shall you spare your labor." 

And now, in a few words, we will on to their nomen- 
clature, their distinctive marks, their regions of inhabit- 
ation, seasons, haunts and habits; and last, not least, 
how, when, and where lawfully, honorably, sportsmanly, 
and gnostically, you may and shall kill them. 

I will not, however, here pause long to discuss the 
point, whether they ought to be termed Quail or Par- 
tridge. Scientifically and practically they are neither, 
but a connecting link between tlie two subgenera. True 
Partridge, nor true Quail, y&Yj ])erdix^ nor very coturnix^ 
exists at all anywhere in America. Our bird, an inter- 



THE AMERICAN QUAH.. 261 

mediate bird between the two, named by the naturalists 
Ortyx^ which is the Greek term for true Quail, is peculiar 
to America, of which but one species, that before us, is 
found in the United States, except on the Pacific coast 
and in California, where there are many other beautiful 
varieties. Our bird is known everywhere East, and 
everywhere JSTorthwest of Pennsylvania, and in Canada, 
as the Quail — everywhere South as the Partridge. In 
size, plumage, flight, habits, and cry, it more closely 
resembles the European Quail ; in some structural points, 
especially the shape and solidity of the bill, the Euro- 
pean Partridge. On the whole, I deem it properly 
termed American Quail ; but whether of the two it shall 
be called, matters little, as no other bird on this conti- 
nent cau clash with it, so long as w^e avoid the ridicule 
of calling one bird by two different terms, on the oppo- 
site sides of one river — the Delaware. The stupid blun- 
der of calling the Ruffled Grouse, Pheasant, and Part- 
ridge, in the South and East, is a totally diff'erent kind 
of misnomer ; as that bird bears no resemblance, how- 
ever distant, to either of the two species, and has a very 
good English name of his own, mdelicet^ " Puffed or 
Tippeted Grouse," by which alone he is known to men 
of brains or of sportsmanship. With regard to our 
Quail, it is diff*erent, as he has no distinctive English 
name of his own ; but is, even by naturalists, indiscrim- 
inately known as Quail and Partridge. The former is 
certiiinly the truer appellation, as he approximates more 



262 AMERICAN GAME. 

closely to that sub-genus. "We wish much that this 
question could be settled ; which we fear, now, that it 
never can be, from the want of any sporting authority^ 
in the country, to pass judgment. The " Spirit of the 
Times," though still as well supported and as racy as 
ever, has, I regret to say, ceased to be an authority, and 
has become a mere arena wherein for every scribbler to 
discuss and support his own undigested and crude 
notions without consideration or examination ; and 
wherein those who know the least, invariably fancying 
themselves to know the most, vituperate with all the 
spite of partisan personality, every person who having 
learned more by reading, examination of authorities, 
and experience than they, ventures to express an opin- 
ion diifering from their old-time prejudices, and the 
established misnomers of provincial or sectional vulgar- 
ism. 

But to resume, the American Quail, or '^ Partridge of 
the South," is too well known throughout the whole of 
America, from the waters of the Kennebec on the East, 
aiKl the Great Lakes on the JN'orth — beyond which latter 
except on the South-western peninsula of Canada West, 
lying between Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron, they are 
scarcely to be found — is too well known, ahnost to the 
extreme South, to need description. Their beauty, their 
familiar cry, their domestic habits during the winter, 
when they become half-civilized, feeding in the barn- 
yards, and often roosting under the cattle-sheds with the 



THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 263 

poultry, render them familiar to all men, women, boys 
and fools tlirongliout the regions wliich they inhabit. 
It is stated by ornithologists, that they abound from 
Nova Scotia and the northern parts of Canada to Florida 
and the Great Osage villages ; but this is incorrect, as 
they rarely are seen eastward of Massachusetts ; never in 
Nova Scotia, or Canada East ; and range so far as Texas 
and the edges of the great American salt desert. The 
adult male bird differs from the hen in having its chaps 
and a remarkable gorget on the throat and lower neck, 
pure white, bordered with jetty black ; wliich parts in 
the young male and the adult female, are bright reddisli- 
yellow ; the upper parts of both are beautifully dashed 
and freckled with chestnut and mahogany-brown, black, 
yellow, gray, and pure white ; the under parts pure 
white, longitudinally dashed with brownish red, and 
transversely streaked with black arrow-headed marks. 
The colors of the male are all brighter, and more defi- 
nite, than in the female. 

Everywhere eastward of the Delaware the Quail is 
resident, never rambling far from the haunts in which 
lie is bred. Everywhere to the westward he is in the 
later autumn migratory, moving constantly on foot, and 
aever flying except w^hen flushed or compelled to cross 
streams and water-courses, from the west eastward ; the 
farther west, the more marked is this peculiarity. 

The Quail pairs early in March ; begins to lay early 
in May, in a nest made on the surface of the ground. 



264: AMERICAN GAME. 

usually at the bottom of a tussock or tuft of grass, lier 
eggs being pure white, and from ten to thirty-two in 
number, though about fourteen is probably the average 
of the bevies. The period of incubation is about four 
weeks, the young birds run the instant they clip the 
shell, and fly readily before they have been hatched a 
fortnight. So soon as the first brood is well on the wing, 
the cock takes charge of it, and the hen proceeds to lay 
and hatch a second, the male bird and first brood 
remaining in the close vicinity, and the j)arents, I doubt 
not, attending the labor of incubation and attending the 
young. This I have long suspected ; but I saw so many 
proofs of it, in company of my friend and fellow sports- 
man, "Dinks," while shooting together near Fort Maiden, 
in Canada West — where we found, in many instances, 
two distinct bevies of different sizes with a single pair 
of old birds, when shooting early in Se23tember of last 
year — that we were equally convinced of the truth of 
the fact, and of the unfitness of the season. 

In October, with the exception of a very few late 
broods, they are fit for the gun ; and then, while the 
stubbles are long, and the weeds and grasses rank, they 
lie the best and are the least wild on the wins:. The 
early mornings and late afternoons are the fittest times 
for finding them, when they are on the run, and feeding 
in the edges of wlieat and rye stubbles, or buckwheat 
patches bordering on woodlands. In the middle of the 
day they either lie up in little brakes and bog-meadows, 



THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 265 

or bask on sandy banks, and craggy liill-sides, when 
tliey are collected into little buddies, and are tben diffi- 
cnlt to find. As soon as flushed, they pitch into the 
thickest neighboring covert, whether bog-meadow, briar- 
patch, cedar-brake, ravine, or rough corn-stubble, they 
can find, their flight being wild, rapid, and impetuous, 
but rarely very long, or well sustained. As they 
unquestionably possess the mysterious power, whether 
voluntary or involuntary, of holding in their scent, for a 
short time after alighting, and are difiicultly found again 
till they have run, I recommend it, as by far the better 
way, to mark them down well, and beat for another 
bevy, until you hear them calling to each other ; then 
lose no time in flushing them again, when they are sure 
to disperse, and you to have sport with them. 

Myself, I prefer setters for their pursuit, as more dash- 
ing, more enduring, and abler to face briars — others 
prefer pointers, as steadier on less work, and better able 
to fag without water. Either, well broke, are good — ill 
broke, or unbroke, worthless. Still give me setters — ■ 
Russian or Irish specially ! Quail fly very fast, and 
strong, especially in covert, and require the whole charge 
to kill them dead and clean. At cross shots, shoot well 
ahead ; at rising shots, well above ; and at straight-away 
shots, a trifle below your birds ; and an oz. J of ISTo. 
S early, and of 'No. Y, late, will fetch them in good 
style. And so good sport to you, kind reader ; for this, 
if I err not, is doomed to be a crack Quail season. 
12 



THE BITTERN. AMEEICAN BITTERN. 

Ardea Minor sive Zentigmos. 

THE INDIAN HEN. THE QUAWK, 
THE DUNKADOO. 

This, tlioiigli a very common and extremely beautiful 
bird, witli an exceedinc^ly extensive geograpliic range, 
is the object of a very general and perfectly inexplicable 
prejudice and dislike, common, it would seem, to all 
classes. The gunner never spares it, although it is per- 
fectly inoffensive ; and although the absurd prejudice, 
to whicli I have alluded, causes him to cast it aside, 
when killed, as uneatable carrion, its flesh is in 
reality very delicate and juicy, and still held in high 
repute in Europe ; while here one is regarded very much 
in the light of a cannibal, as I have myself experienced, 
for venturing to eat it. The farmer and the boatman 
stigmatize it by a filthy and indecent name. The cook 
turns up her nose at it, and throws it to the cat ; for the 
dog, wiser than his master, declines it— not as unfit to 
eat, but as ga7)ie, and therefore meat for his masters. 




THE BITTERN. AMERICAN BITTERN. Ardea Mirtw sive Lentiginosa. 



THE BITTEKN. 267 

ISTow the Eittern would not probably be much ag- 
grieved at being voted carrion, provided his imputed 
carrion-cZ(97??., as Willis would probably designate the 
condition, procured him immunity from the gun. 

But to be shot first and thrown away afterward, 
would seem to be the very excess of that condition 
described by the common phrase of adding injury to 
insult. 

Under this state of mingled persecution and degrada- 
tion, it must be the Bittern's best consolation that, in the 
days of old, when the wine of Auxerre, now the com- 
mon drink of republican Yankeedom, which annually 
consumes of it, or in lieu of it, more than grows of it 
annually in all France, was voted by common consent 
the drink of kings — he, with his cougener and com- 
patriot the Heronschaw, was carved by knightly hands, 
upon the noble deas under the royal canopy, for gentle 
dames and peerless damoiselles ; nay, was held in such 
repute, that it was the wont of prowest chevaliers, when 
devoting themselves to feats of emprise most perilous, 
to swear "before God, the bittern, and the ladies !" an 
honor to which no quadruped, and but two plumy 
bipeds, other than himself, the heron and the peacock, 
were admitted. 

Those were the days, before gunpowder, " grave of 
chivalry," was taught to Doctor Faustus by the Devil, 
who did himself no good by the indoctrination, but 
exactly the reverse, since war is thereby rendered less 



268 AMERICAN GAME. 

bloody, and mucli more uncruel — tlie days when no 
booming dnck-gnn keeled liim over with certain and 
inglorious death, as he flapped up with his broad vans 
beating the cool autumnal air, and his long, greenish- 
yellow legs pendulous behind him, from out of the dark 
sheltering water-flags by the side of the brimful river, or 
the dark woodland tarn ; but when the cheery yelp of a 
cry of feathery-legged spaniels aroused him from his 
arundinaceous, which is interpreted by moderns reedy, 
lair ; when the triumphant whoop of the jovial falconers 
saluted his uprising ; and when he was done to death 
right chivalrously, with honorable law permitted to him, 
as to the royal stag, before the long-winged l^orway 
falcons, noblest of all the fowls of air, were unhooded 
and cast off to give him gallant chase. 

If, when struck down from his pride of place by the 
crook-beaked blood-hound of the air, his legs were mer- 
cilessly broken, and his long bill thrust into the ground, 
that the falcon might dispatch him without fear of con- 
sequences, and at leisure, it was doubtless a source of 
pride to him, as to the tortured Indian at the stake, to 
be so tormented, since the amount of the torture was 
commensurate with the renown of the tortured ; besides 
— for which the Bittern was, of course, truly grateful — 
it was his high and extraordinary prerogative to have 
liis legs broken as aforesaid, and his long bill thrust into 
the ground, by the fair hand of the loveliest lady present 
— thrice blessed Bittern of the days of old. 



THE BITTERN. 2i){) 

A veiy different fate, in sooth, from being riddled 
with a charge of double Bs from a rusty flint-lock Queen 
Anne's musket, j)oised by the horny paws of John 
Verity, and then ignobly cast to fester in the sun, 
among the up-piled eel-skins, fish-heads, king-crabs, and 
the like, with which, in lieu of garden-patch or well- 
trained rose-bush, the south-side Long Islander orna- 
ments his front-door yard, rejoicing in the effluvia of the 
said decomposed piscine exuvice, which he regards as 
" considerable hullsome," beyond Sabsean odors, Syrian 
nard, or frankincense from Araby the blest ! 

Being eaten is being eaten after all ; whether it be by 
a jN^ew Zealand war-chief, a l^ew jTork alderman, a 
peerless lady, or a muck-worm ; and I suppose it feels 
much the same, after one is once well dead ; but, if I 
had my choice, I would most prefer to be eaten by the 
damoiselle of high degree., and most dislike to be bat- 
tened on by the alderman, as being more ravenous and 
less appreciative than either Zealander or muck-worm. 

The Bittern, however, be it said in sober earnest, 
although like many other delicious dishes prized by the 
wiser ancients, but now fallen into disuse, if not into 
disrepute — ^to wit, the heronschaw, the peacock, the 
curlew, and the swan — all first-rate dainties to the wise 
— is a viand not easily to be beaten, especially if he be 
sagely cooked in a well-baked, rich-crusted pastry, with 
a tender and fat rump-steak in the bottom of the dish, a 
beefs kidney scored to make gravy, a handful of cloves, 



270 AJVIEKICAN GAME. 

salt and black pepper quantamsiiff.^ a dozen hard-boiled 
eggs, and a pint of scalding-liot port wine poured in just 
before you serve up. 

What you say is perfectly true, my dear madam, 
cooked in that manner an old India rubber shoe is good : 
not only would be, but is. But you'd better believe it, 
a Bittern is a great deal better. If you don't believe 
me, try the Bittern, and then if you prefer it, adhere to 
the shoe. 

But now to quit his edible qualifications and turn to 
his personal appearance, habits of life, and location, and 
other characteristics, we will say of him, in the words of 
Wilson, that eloquent pioneer in the natural history of 
America, that the American Bittern, whom it pleases 
the Count de Buffon to designate as Le Butor de la Baye 
de Hudson^ '' is another nocturnal species, common to 
all our sea and river marshes, though nowhere nume- 
rous. It rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and, 
unless disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. 
In some places it is called the Indian Hen ; on the sea- 
coast of E"ew Jersey it is known by the name of dunha- 
doo^ a word probably imitative of its common note. 
They are also found in the interior, having myself killed 
one at the inlet of the Seneca Lake, in October. It 
utters at times, a hollow, guttural note among the reeds, 
but has nothing of that loud, booming sound for which 
the European Bittern is so remarkable. This circum- 
stance, with its great inferiority of size, and difference of 



THE BITTERN. 271 

marking, sufficiently prove tliem to be two distinct 
species, although hitherto, the present has been classed 
as a mere variety of the European Bittern. These birds, 
we are informed, visit Severn river at Hudson's Bay, 
about the beginning of June ; make tlieir nests in 
swamps, laying four cinereous green eggs among the 
long grass. The young are said to be, at first, black. 

'' These birds, when disturbed, rise with a hollow 'kwa^ 
and are then easily shot down as they fly heavily. Like 
other night birds, their sight is most acute during the 
evening twilight ; but their hearing is, at all times, 
exquisite. 

"Tlie American Bittern is twenty-seven inches long, 
and three feet four inches in extent ; from the j)oint of 
the bill to the extremity of the toes, it measures three 
feet ; the bill is four inches long ; the upper mandible 
black ; the lower greenish-yellow ; lares and eyelids, yel- 
low ; irides, bright yellow ; upper part of the head, flat, and 
remarkably depressed; the plumage there is of a deep 
blackish brown, long behind and on the neck, the general 
color of which is a yellowish brown, shaded with darker ; 
this long plumage of the neck the bird can throw forward 
at will, when irritated, so as to give him a more formi- 
dable appearance ; throat, whitish, streaked with deep 
brown : from the posterior and lower part of the auricu- 
lars, a broad patch of deep black passes diagonally across 
the neck, a distinguished characteristic of this species ; 
the back is deep brown, barred, and mottled with innu- 



272 AlVIEPwICAN GAME. 

merable specks and streaks of brownish yellow ; quillS; 
black, with a leaden gloss, and tipped with yellowish 
brown ; legs and feet, yellow, tinged with pale green ; 
middle claw, pectinated ; belly, light yellowish brown, 
streaked with darker ; vent, jilain ; thighs, sprinkled on 
the outside with grains of dark brown ; male and female 
nearly alike, the latter somewhat less. According to 
Bewick, the tail of the European Bittern contains only ten 
feathers ; the American sj^ecies has, invariably, twelve. 
The intestines measured five feet six inches in length, 
and were very little thicker than a common knitting- 
needle ; the stomach is usually filled with fish or frogs.* 

*' This bird, when fat, is considered by many to be 
excellent eating." 

It is on the strength of Mr. Wilson's statement as 
above that I have given among the vulgar appellations 
of this beautiful bird that of Dunkadoo / though I must 
admit that I never heard him called a Dunkadoo^ either 
on the sea-coast of ]^ew Jersey or any where else ; and 
further must put it on record, that if the sea-coasters of 
New Jersey did coin the said melodious word as imita- 
tive of its common note^ they proved much worse imita- 
tors than I have found tliem in whistling bay snipe, 
hawnking Canada geese, or yelping Brant. They might 
just as well have called him a Cockatoo^ while they were 
about it. 

* I have taken an entire water-rail from the stomach of the European 
Bittern.— Ed. 



THE BITTElilSr. 



273 



The other name, Quawk^ by which it is generally 
known both on the sea-coast of New Jersey, and every 
where else where the vernacular of America prevails, is 
precisely imitative of the harsh clanging cry with which 
he rises from the reeds in which he lurks during the day 
time, and which he utters while disporting himself in 
queer clumsy gyrations in mid air, over the twilight 
marshes in the dusk of summer evenings; and how near- 
ly Quaick approaches to DunJcadoo^ that one of my 
readers who is the least appreciative of the comparative 
value of sweet sounds, can judge as well as I can. 

In England the Bittern, who there is possessed of a 
voice between the sounds of a bassoon and a kettle-drum, 
with which he makes a most extraordinary booming 
noise, which can be heard for miles, if not for leagues, 
over the midnight marshes, a noise the most melancholy 
and unearthly that ever shot superstitious horror into 
the bosom of the belated wayfarer, who is unconscious 
of its cause, has also been designated by the country 
people from his cry, " the bog-bumper," and the " blut- 
tery bump" — but as our bird — the United States^r, I 
mean, or AUeghanian, as the ITew York Historical So- 
ciety Associates would designate their countrymen — 
Bittern never either booms, blutters or bumps, but only 
quawks ; a quawk only he must be content to remain, 
whether with the sea-coasters of iS'ew Jersey, the south- 
siders of Long Island, or my friends, the Ojibwas of 
Lake Huron. 



274 AJVIEEICAN GAIVIE. 

In another respect I cannot precisely agree with, tlie 
acute and observing naturalist quoted above, as to its 
ungregarious nature, since on more occasions tlian one 
I have seen these birds together in such numbers, and 
under such circumstances of association, as would cer- 
tainly justify the application to them of the v^ordjloch 

One of these occasions I remember well, as it occurred 
while snipe-shooting on the fine marshes about the 
rimer e aux Canards in Canada "West, when several 
times I saw as many as five or six fiush together from 
out of the high reeds, as if in coveys ; and this was late 
in September, so that they could not well have been 
young broods still under the parental care. 

At another time I saw them in yet greater numbers 
and acting together, as it appeared, in a sort of concert. 
I was walking, I cannot now recollect why, or to what 
end, along the marshes on the bank of the Hackensack 
river, between the railroad bridge and that very singular 
knoll named Snakehill, which rises abruptly out of the 
meadows like an island out of the ocean. It was late in 
the summer evening, the sun had gone quite down, and 
a thick gray mist covered the broad and gloomy river. 
On a sudden, I was almost startled by a loud quawk 
close above my head ; and, on looking up, observed a 
large Bittern wheeling round and round, now soaring 
lip a hundred feet or more, and then suddenly diving, or 
to speak more accursiteij, falling, plump down, with his 
legs and wings all relaxed and abroad, precisely as if ho 



THE BITTERN. 275 

had been shot dead, uttering at the moment of each 
dive a loud quaiol^. While I was still engaged in 
watching his manoeuvres, he was answered, and a 
second Bittern came floating through the darksome air, 
and joined his comj^anion. Another and another fol- 
lowed, and within ten or twelve minutes, there must 
have been from fifteen to twenty of these large birds all 
gamboling and disporting themselves together, circling 
round one another in their gyratory flight, and making 
the night any thing, certainly, but melodious by their 
clamors. What was the meaning of those strauge noc- 
turnal movements I cannot so much as guess ; it was not 
early enough in the spring to be connected in any way 
with the amatory propensities of the birds, or I should 
have certainly set it down, like the peculiar flight, the 
unusual chatter, and the drumming, performed with 
the quill-feathers, of the American Snipe — Scolojyax 
Wilsonii — commonly known as the English snipe, dur- 
ing the breeding season, as a preliminary to ^cubatlon, 
nidification', and the" reproduction of the species — in a 
word, as a sort of bird courtship. The season of the 
year put a stopper on that interpretation, and I can con- 
ceive none other than that the Qiiawks were indulging 
themselves in an innocent game of romps, preparatory 
to the more serious and solemn enjoyment of a fish and 
frog supper. 

The Bittern, it appears, on the Severn river, emptying 
into Hudson's Bav, makes its nest in the h>n£c o-rass of 



276 AMERICAN GAME. 

the marslies, and there hajs its eggs and rears its black 
downy young ; hnt several years ago, while residing at 
Bangor, in Maine, while on a visit to a neighboring 
heronry, situated on an island covered with a dense 
forest of tall pines and hemlocks, I observed a pair of 
Bitterns flying to and fro, from the tree-tops to the river 
and back, with fish in their bills, among the herons 
which were similarly engaged in the same interesting 
occupation of feeding their young. One of these, the 
male bird, I shot, for the purpose of settling the fact, 
and we afterward harried the nest, and obtained two 
full-grow^n young birds, almost ready to fly. 

Hence, I presume, that, like many other varieties of 
birds, the Bittern adapts his habits, even of nidification, 
to the purposes of the case, and that where no trees are 
to be found, in which he can breed, he makes the best he 
can of it, and builds on the ground ; but it is my opinion 
that his more usual and preferred situation for his nest is 
in high trees, as is the case with his congeners, the Green 
Bittern, the blue heron, the beautiful white egret, the 
night heron, which may be all found breeding together 
in hundreds among the red cedars on the sea beach of 
Cape May. The nest, which I found in Maine, was 
built of sticks, precisely similar to that of the herons. 

The Bittern is a more nocturnal bird than the heron, 
and is never seen, like him, standing motionless as a gray 
stone, with his long slender neck recurved, his javelin- 



THE BITTERN. 277 

like bill poised for tlie stroke, and his keen eye piercing 
tlie transj)arent water in search of the passing fry. 

All day he rambles about among the tall grass and 
reeds of the marshes, sometimes pouncing on an unfor- 
tunate frog, a garter-snake, or a mouse, for, like the blue 
heron, he is a clever and indefatigable mouser; but 
when the evening comes, he bestirs himself, spreads his 
broad vans, rises in air, summoning up his comrades by 
his hoarse clang, and wings his way over the dim 
morasses, to the banks of some neighboring rivulet or 
pool, where he watches, erect sentinel, for the passing 
fish, shiners, small eels, or any of the lesser tribes of the 
cyprinidae, and whom he detects, w^oe betide ; for the 
stroke of his sharp-pointed bill, dealt with Parthian 
velocity and certitude by the long arrowy neck, is sure 
death to the unfortunate. 

Mr. Giraud, in his excellent book on the birds of Long 
Island, thus speaks of the American Bittern, and that so 
truthfully and agreeably withal, that I make no apology 
for quoting his words at length. 

" This species is said to have been the favorite bird of 
the Indians, and at this day is known to many persons 
by the name of " Indian Hen," or " Pullet," though 
more familiarly by the appellation of " Look-up," so 
called from its habit, when standing on the marslies of 
elevating its head, which position, though j)robably 
adopted as a precautionary measure, frequently leads to 
its destruction. The gunners seem to have a strong 



278 AMERICAN GAME. 

prejudice against this unoffending bird, and whenever 
opportunity offers, seldom allow it to escape. It does 
not move about much by day, though it is not strictly 
nocturnal, but is sometimes seen flying low over the 
meadow, in pursuit of short-tailed or meadow-mice, 
which I have taken whole from its stomach. It also 
feeds on fish, frogs, lizards, etc. ; and late in the season, 
its flesh is in high esteem — but it cannot be procured in 
any number except when the marshes are overflowed by 
unusually high tides, when it is hunted much after the 
manner the gunners adopt when in pursuit of rail. On 
ordinary occasions, it is difficult to flush ; the instant 
it becomes aware that it has attracted the attention of 
the fowler, it lowers its head and runs quickly through 
the grass, and when again seen, is usually in a different 
direction from that taken by its pursuer, whose move- 
ments it closely watches ; and when thus pursued, 
seldom exposes more than the head, leading the gunner 
over the marsh without giving him an opportunity to 
accomplish his purpose. 

" "When wounded, it makes a vigorous resistance, 
erects the feathers on the head and neck, extends its 
wings, opens its bill, and assumes a fierce expression — 
will attack the dog, and even its master, and when 
defendino" itself, directs its acute bill at its assailant's 
eye. It does not usually associate with other herons, 
nor does it seem fond of the society of its own species. 



THE BITTEEN. 279 

Singly or in pairs it is distributed over the marslies, but 
with us it is not abundant." 

The geographical range of this bird is, as I have 
before stated, very extensive, extending from the shores 
of Hudson's Bay, in the extreme north, so far south at 
least as to the Cape of Florida, and probably yet farther 
down the coasts of the Mexican gulfs. 

That fanciful blockhead, the Count de Buffon — for he 
was a most almighty blockhead when he set himself 
drawing on his imagination for facts — Avith his usual 
eloquent absurdity, describes the sj^ecies as " exhibiting 
the picture of wretchedness, anxiety and indigence ; 
condemned to struggle perpetually with misery and 
want ; sickened with the restless cravings of a famished 
appetite ;" a description so ridiculously untrue, that were 
it possible for these birds to comprehend it, it v/ould 
excite the risibility of the whole tribe. 

If the count had seen the Quawks, as I did, at their 
high jinks, by the Hackensack, he would have scarce 
written such folly ; and had he been a little more of a 
true philosopher, and thorough naturalist, he would have 
comprehended that whatsoever being the Universal 
Creator hath created unto any end — to that end he 
adapted him, not in his physical structure only, but in 
his instincts, his appetites, his tastes, his pleasures and 
his pains ; and that to the patient Bittern, motionless on 
his mud-bank, that watch is as charming, as is the swift 
pursuit of the small bird to the falcon, of the rabbit to 



280 AMEEICAIT GAME. 

the fox, of tlie hare to the greyhound, of all the animals 
devoured to all the devonrers ; and that his frog diet is 
as dear to Ardea Lentiginosa^ as his flower dew to the 
humming-bird, or his canvas-backs, in the tea-room, to 
an alderman of Manhattan. 

As for the Bittern starving, eat a fat one in a pie, and 
you'll be a better judge of that probability, than any 
Bufibn ever bred in France ; and as for all the rest — it 
is just French humbug. 

At another opportunity, I may speak of others of this 
interesting tribe. Sportsmen rarely go out especially to 
hunt them, except in boats, as described by Mr. Giraud, 
but in snipe and duck-shooting in the marshes they are 
constantly flushed and shot. 

Pointers and setters will both stand them steadily, and 
cocking spaniels chase them with ardor. Their flight is 
slow and heavy, and their tardy movements and large 
size render them an easy mark even to a novice. They 
are not a hardy bird, as to the bearing off shot ; for the 
loose texture of their feathers is more than ordinarily 
penetrable, and a light charge of '^o. 8, will usually 
bring them down with certainty. 

When wing-tipped they flght flercely, striking with 
their long beaks at the eyes of the assailant, whether 
dog or man, and laying aside resistance only with their 
lives. 

Early in the autumn is the best time both for shooting 
him and eatiiii]^ him, and for the latter purpose he is 



THE BITTEEN. 281 

better than for the former ; but for the noble art of fal- 
conry, the mystery of rivers, he is the best of all. 
Avium facile princejps / easily the Topsawyer of the 
birds of flight, unless it be his cousin german heronshaw, 
whom the princely Dane knew from a hawk, when tho 
wind was nor-nor-west. 



XL 
NOVEMBER. 



^Ije Ivufffir §xBm. 



3 

2etrao Umbellus. 

THE PHEASANT ; THE PAETEIDGE. 

LABRADOR- BRITISH POSSESSIONS; UNITED STATE3. 



Perca Fla.vescius. 
CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA. 



THE RUFFED GROUSE. 

Tetrao TJmbellus, 

The beautiful bird wliich is depicted above, is tliat 
kjiown as the Partridge, in ^ew Jersey, and all tbe 
States east and north of the Delaware, and as the Pheas- 
ant everywhere to the westward of that fine stream ; and 
by these provincial vulgarisms it is like to be known 
and designated, until sportsmen will take the trouble of 
acquiring a little knowledge of their own trade, and will 
cease to regard naturalists as mere theorizing bookmen, 
and scientific names and distinctions as supererogatory 
humbug. Tlie distinction between the Grouse and other 
birds of the gallinaceous order, is that the former are 
invariably, the latter never^ feathered below the knee. 
This distinction never fails, and is very easily noted ; 
although, in different species of the genus, the extent of 
the feathering difiers. In the Euffed Grouse the soft 
fleecy feathering of the leg is sparse, and descends only 
to the middle of the shank. In the Pinnated Grouse, 
Prairie Hen of the West, and Grouse of Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, and Rhode Island, the legs are feathered 



286 AIVIEEICAN GAME. 

tlie wliole way down tlie sliank, to tlie insertion of tlie 
toes ; and the same is tlie case of the Canada Grouse, or 
Spruce Partridge of the remote Eastern States. In all 
those species of Grouse, which are known as Ptarmigan, 
dwellers of the extreme north, or in the northern tem- 
perature of iced mountain-tops, the feathering continues 
the whole length of the toes quite to the insertion of the 
claws — this I merely th^wWotl jpar jparentliese^ as there is 
but one of the Ptarmigans likely to fall within reach of 
the sportsman ; namely, the Willow Grouse, or Ped- 
Necked Partridge of the extreme parts of Maine, and 
the Easternmost British provinces, and thence so far as 
to the Arctic Circle. 

These distinctions are easily borne in mind, and will 
be found all-sufficient to the discriminating woodsman, 
wdio desires to be able to call things by their right names, 
and to give a reason for doing so. 

The true Pheasant is a native of Asia originally, 
though it has been naturalized in Europe, since a very 
early period, and is now abundant in Erance and Eng- 
land. No species of this bird, which is distinguished by 
a pointed tail above half a yard in length, and by its 
splendidly gorgeous coloring, little inferior in intensity 
to that of the Peacock, has ever been found, or is 
believed to exist in any portion of the Western hemis- 
phere ; although those singular and showy birds, the 
Curagoas of South America, have some relation to it. 

The same is true of the real Partridge ; although the 



THE BUFFED GKOUSE. 2S7 

Quail of this continent would seem to be its equi\^alent ; 
being as it were a connecting link between tlie European 
Quail, and the Partridge of Europe. 

The Euffed Grouse ranges over a very wide portion of 
the United States and British provinces, from the 51st 
degree of north latitude to the Atlantic sea-board, 
although it is much more scarce in the Southern States 
than in the midland and northern regions. It is remark- 
able also that it varies exceedingly in color ; those to the 
northward being comparatively dull and gray, to those 
of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and more genial regions. 

The distinctive feature, whence this bird derives his 
title of Ruffed Grouse, is the tuft or tippet of jet-black 
feathers, glossed with metallic hues, which are shown 
more or less distinctly in each of the figures in the 
wood-cut at the head of this paper, but the most decided- 
ly in the cock-bird, represented as standing on a fallen 
log, in the act of drumming, with these ruffs elevated, 
and his tail erected and expanded after the manner of a 
Turkey or Peacock, in the season of his am^orous phan- 
tasies. 

This drumming, a sound sufficiently familiar to all 
ears accustomed to the sights and noises of the forest, is 
no less than the call of the male bird to his harem of 
attendant wives ; for the Puffed Grouse, unlike our 
pretty, constant, and domestic Quail, selects himself no 
one fond partner, whom to cheer with his loved notes, to 
comfort and amuse during the breeding season, bu* 



288 AMERICAN GAME. 

rejoices like a veritable grand Sigiior in a multiplicity of 
tair snltanas, whom so soon as they betake themselves to 
the cares of maternity, he abandons, like HQ^oue as he is, 
and passes the remainder of the season, nntil the broods 
disperse in the antnmn, in company with small packs of 
his own faithless sex, reveling and enjoying himself on 
the mountain sides, in his loved pines and hemlocks, 
while his forgotten loves brood patient over the hopes of 
the coming season. 

'' This drumming," says Wilson, in his eloquent and 
animated page, " is most common in sj^ring, and is the 
call of the cock to a favorite female. It is produced in 
the following manner : the bird, standing on an old pros- 
trate log, generally in a retired situation, lowers his 
wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his throat, 
elevates the two tufts of feathers on the neck, and 
inflates his whole body something in the manner of a 
Turkey cock strutting and wheeling about in great state- 
Imess. After a few manoeuvres of this kind, he begins 
to strike his stiffened wings in short and quick strokes, 
which become more and more rapid until they run into 
each other, resembling the rumbling sound of very 
distant thunder dying away gradually on the ear. After 
a few minutes' pause, this is again repeated, and in a 
calm day may be heard nearly a mile off. This is most 
common in the morning and evening, though I have 
heard them drumming at all hours of the day." 

It is singular, that so exact an authority o.s Wilson 



THE RUTTED GKOUSE. 289 

has proved himself to be, should fall into the strange 
error of speaking of this singular amorous sound as a 
call to a single female ; and elsewhere of the PheasoMt^ 
as he erroneously calls it, pairing ; when it is notorious 
to all who have closely observed the habits of this bird, 
that it is polygamous. Such, I believe, will be found 
the case witli all those gallinaceous birds which have an 
especial summons, or peculiar display of attitudes, airs, 
and splendors by which to attract the females ; as may 
be observed of the common Game-cock, the Turkey, the 
Peacock, and tlie European Pheasant ; no one of which 
takes to himself an especial and chosen partner, but 
disports himself in his wanton seraglio. 

On many occasions, during this particular season, 
I have stolen up to within a few yards of the log, 
whereon the Knifed Grouse was so busily employed in 
summoning his dames and demoiselles around him, that 
he had no ears or eyes for my approach, Avhich at any 
other period ho would have discovered long before, and 
wdiirred away tumultuous on terrified and sounding 
pinions. I have lain concealed, for an hour at a time, 
w^atching w^ith intense gratification the beautiful and 
animated gestures of the cock, now strutting and drum- 
ming on his log, proud as an eastern despot, now 
descending to caress and dally w^ith his numerous Iloxa- 
lanas, and then reascending to his post of pride, to send 
his resonant call far through the haunted echoes of the 
umbrageous pine-woods. On one such chance, I saw no 



290 AMEEICAN GAME. 

less tlian seven lien birds gathered around a single male, 
all in turn expectant of liis looked-for attentions, and all 
gratified by a share of liis notice. If this be not 
Polygamy, I should like to receive the Grand Turk's 
opinion on the subject, as I confess myself, if it be any 
thing less, in a state of absolute benightedness. 

The Ruffed Grouse begins her nest very early in May, 
and lays from eight to lifteen brownish-white, unspotted 
eggs, nearly the size of those of a j)ullet. With the 
exact period of this bird's incubation I am not acquaint- 
ed ; the young birds run the instant they clip the shell ; 
obey the cluck of the mother, as chickens that of the 
hen ; and are tended by her with extreme care and 
solicitude. In case of her being surprised with her 
young about her, she resorts to all the artifices practiced 
by the Quail, and even by tlie comparatively dull and 
stolid Woodcock, to draAv away the intruder from the 
vicinity, feigning lameness, and incapacity to fly, until 
she shall have lured aw^ay the j^ursuer far from the 
hiding-place of her fledglings. Then she shall whirr 
away on resonant and powerful pinions, up, up above 
the tops of the tall pines and hemlocks, and thence skate 
jiomeward noiseless on balanced wings, where she will 
hnd them close ensconced anions^ the shelterino: fern 
tufts, or the matted winter-greens and whortleberry 
bushes, viewless to the most prying eye, and undiscover- 
able, save to the nose of the unerring spaniel. But 
once returned, you sliall see them emerge, chirping 



THE KUFFED GKOUSE. 29'^ 

feebly at the soft maternal cluck, and hurrying to 
enshroud them under the shelter of her guardian wing, 
and nestle, happy younglings, among the downy plumage 
of her maternal breast. Curses upon the sacrilegious 
hand that would interrupt that sweet and tender scene 
by the sharj) click of the murderous trigger ; yet there 
he brutes, in the guise of men, who scruj^le not to 
butcher the drumming cock, taken at fatal disadvantage, 
amid his admiring harem ; scruple not to slaughter the 
brooding mother above her miserable younglings — but 
to such Vn'c cry avaunt ! to such we deny the name of 
sportsmen, nay, but of Christians, or of men. Get ye 
behind us, murderous pot-hunters ! 

The young broods grow rapidly ; and by the time tliey 
have reached the size of the Quail, fly well and strongly 
on the vv'ing. By the middle, or latter end of August, 
they are three parts grown, and fully feathered, with the 
exception of the tail, which is not yet complete, and 
retains a pointed form. The blundering legislation of 
tliis country in general, on the subject of the game-laws, 
has, in this instance, to my ideas, exceeded itself; for 
during the months of September and October, wlien the 
broods are still united under the care of the mother, the 
birds lying well to the setter, and when flushed scatter- 
ing themselves singly here and there among low under- 
growth or bushes, and rarely or never taking to the tree, 
we are prohibited from shooting this bold, hardy, ramb- 
ling, and shy bird ; tliis, at a later season, wild hunter 



292 AMERICAN GAME. 

of inaccessible rock-ledges, impenetrable rhododendron 
brakes, and deep sequestered hemlock-swamps ; this, the 
most uncomatable and self-protecting bird of all the vari- 
eties of American game ; the only variety, perhaps, 
which never can by any means, fair or unfair, be exter- 
minated from among ns, so long as the rock-ribbed 
mountains tow^er toward the skies, and the forests clothe 
them with foliage never sere. 

At this period they would afford rare sport, as at all 
other seasons they afford none ; and are, moreover, in far 
the best condition for the table, as the old birds are apt 
to be dry, unless hung up for several weeks before being- 
cooked, which can, of course, only be done in winter, 
when the coldness of the weather prevents their becom- 
ing tainted, without absolutely freezing them. 

In my opinion, therefore, this the only bird, of Ameri- 
can game, which might well exist apart from almost all 
protection, is now so protected as to be almost rendered 
impossible to the gun of the f\iir sportsman ; while for 
others, the tamest, the most easily killed, and the most 
rapidly decreasing of all our winged tribes, as the Wood- 
cock, for example, the mock protection afforded to them 
is but another word for the license to slaughter them 
half-fledged and half-growm, while the second brood is 
yet in the black-down, and unable to exist without the 
parent's care. 

I would myself desire to see the legitimate season lor 
[luffed Grouse-shootinor made to commence with the first 



TIIE EUFFED GKOUSE. 2\)i> 

(laj of Se^^tember, the young birds b}^ that tiiiie, and in 
truth much earlier, being quite fit for the gun, and to 
cease on the fifteenth of December, or at Christmas at 
the latest, before the snows of winter admit of their 
being snared and trapped by thousands. 

Toward the middle of October, the old hens drive off 
the broods, or the young birds now perfectly mature, 
stray from them of their own accord ; and thenceforth 
they are found sometimes in little companies of two, 
three, or four, but far more often singly, in wild, difficult 
upland woods, through which they love to ramble 
deviously for miles, as they are led in search of their 
favorite food, or sometimes, as it would seem, by mere 
whim. On one occasion, many years since, when I was 
but a young sportsman on this side of the Atlantic, I 
remember footing a' small party of five birds, in a light 
snow, for above ten miles among the Wawayanda moun- 
tains, in Orange County, ^N'ew^ York, without getting up 
to them ; although it was easily seen by their hurried 
and agitated tracks that for a great part of the distance 
they were within hearing of me, and were running from 
my pursuit. I had no dogs with me. Had I been out 
with setters, the Grouse would have trailed them for 
miles, and unquestionably risen at last out of shot. 
With spaniels, or curs, trained to run in upon them, and 
pm*sue, yelping loudly, as the mode is in the backwoods, 
where men do not shoot but gim, they would have taken 
to the trees, and would have sat close to the trunk with 



294 AMEBIC AN GAME. 

their bodies erect, and their necks elongated, and might 
have been killed easily, the only difficulty being that of 
perceiving them, a difficulty far more considerable than 
would be imagined to an unpracticed eye. To shoot 
birds sitting, however, whether on trees or on the ground, 
is not sport for a sportsman ; the only case where it is 
ever allowable, is to the woodsman on a tramp through 
the primitive and boundless forest, where his camp- 
kettle must be filled by tlie contents of his bag, and 
where to throw away a chance is, perhaps, in the end to 
go supperless to bed. In such a case, while canoeing it 
last Autumn " with a goodly companye" up the northern 
rivers that debouch into lake Huron, we shot many, 
while portaging around cataracts or rapids on the 
Severn ; and on one occasion a gentleman of the party 
shot three birds, out of one small pine tree, without any 
of them moving or appearing alarmed at the gun-shots. 
This has often been related as a constant and ordinary 
habit of the bird; and from that occurrence, I am 
induced to believe that w^hen the bird is in its natural 
solitudes, unacquainted with man and his murderous 
weapons, such may be the case ; in the settlements, 
however it might have been when they were rare and 
sparse, this is the habit of the Ruffed Grouse no longer, 
I have never in my life, save in the instance mentioned, 
observed anything of the kind ; on the contrary, I have 
ever found them the wildest, the most wary, and unless, 



TUE HUFFED GKOUSE. 295 

oy some mere cliance, the least approachable of all wild 
birds. 

During the latter autmiin, they eschew flat, bnsliy 
tracts, and even swamps with heavy thickets, their 
instinct probably telling them that in such covert they 
are liable to be taken napping. If, however, one have 
the fortune to find them in such tracts, he is likely to 
have sport over setters ; and in no other sort of ground 
do I deem that possible, as the law nov/ stands. Once, 
many years since, sporting in the heavy thorn-brakes 
around Pine Brook, in 'New Jersey, I found them with a 
friend in low underwood, and we had great sport, bag- 
ging eight brace of Ruffed Grouse over points, in addi- 
tion to some eighteen or twenty brace of Quail. 

In general, however, they frequent either 02)en groves 
of tall, thrifty timber, with a carpet of wintergreens, 
cranberries and whortleberries, which constitute their 
favorite food ; or the steep mountain-ledges, under the 
interlaced branches of tall evergreen trees, among brakes 
of mountain rhododendron, or, as it is commonly called, 
though erroneously, laurel. In both these species of 
ground, all being clear below, the birds can hear and see 
the sportsman long before he can approach them, and 
take wing, for the most parr, entirely out of gun-shot 
range. If, however, they are surprised unavrares, they 
have a singular tact of dodging behind the first bush, 
or massive trunk, and flying off" in a right line, keep- 
ing the obstacle directly between the sportsman and 



296 AMEIilCAN GAME. 

tliemselves, so as to frustrate all bis jlfcrts to obtain a 
sliot ; tbis I bave seen done so often as to satisfy me 
tbat it is tbe result, not of cbance, but of a deliberate 
instinct. 

Tbe Euffed Grouse rises, at first, wben surprised, witr 
a beavy wbirring and laborious flutter, and if taken at 
tbat moment witbin range, is easily sbot ; be rises for 
tbe most part a little bigber tban tbe bead of a tall man, 
and goes away swift and strong nearly in a borizontal 
line. If struck bebind, be will carry away a beavy load 
of sbot, and be bas a trick of flying until bis breatb 
leaves bim in the air, and tben falls dead before be 
strikes tbe ground. Occasionally be towers up witb. tbe 
wind, and tben setting bis wings, skates down before it 
at a prodigious rate, without moving a feather ; and if 
you get a sbot at him, gentle reader, under such circum- 
stances, crossing you at long range, be sure tbat you 
shoot two, or, by 'r lady, three feet ahead of him, or you 
may cut off his extreme tail-feathers, but of a si^rety kill 
him you shall not. 

The Euffed Grouse usually flies in a perfectly right 
line, so tbat if you flush one without getting a shot, and 
can preserve his line exactly, you may find him, if he 
have not treed, which it is ten to one he has ; wherefore 
I advise you not to follow bim. Tbe exception to tbis 
right line of flight, is wben the ground is broken into 
ridges with parallel ravines, in w^bich case the bird, on 
crossing a ridge at right angles, will rarely cross the 



THE EUFFED GROUSE. 297 

ravine also, but will dive up or down, as the covert may 
invite. 

"When birds lie in narrow ravines, filled witli o-ood 
covert, by throwing the guns forward on the brow of the 
ridges a hundred yards ahead of the dogs, wdiich must 
be left behind with a person to hunt and restrain them, 
and letting the sportsmen carefully keep that distance in 
advance, going very gingerly and silently, sport may be 
bad ; and so I think only — especially over slow, mute, 
cocking spaniels, for as the birds, after running before 
the dogs, will be likely to take wing abreast of, or per- 
haps even behind the unexpected shooter, who has tlius 
stolen a marcli on them, and as they rarely, if ever, cross 
the ridges, but fly straight along the gorge, tlicy so 
aiiord fair shots. 

For my own part, I do not consider it worth the while, 
as the law now stands, to go out in pursuit of Euffed 
Grouse with dogs, where you expect to find no other 
species of game ; for, in the first place, they ramble so 
widely, that there is no certainty of finding them within 
ten miles of the spot where you may have seen them 
daily for a month ; and, secondly, if you do find them, 
there is no certainty of Laving sport with them, but 
rather a probability of reverse. As an adjunct to other 
kinds of shooting they are excellent, but as sole objects 
of pursuit, I think, Avorthless. I have often blundered 
on them by cliance wliile hunting for other game ; but 



298 AMEKICAN GAME. 

when I have gone out expressly in pursuit of them, 1 
have never had even tolerable sport. 

If the law were altered, and Sej^jtember shooting per- 
mitted, the case w^ould be altered also ; and in many 
regions of our countrj^, as the Kaatskill Mountains, and 
some parts of Columbia and Saratoga counties, in New 
York ; the Pocono Mountains, and the Blue Ridge, gen- 
erally, in Pennsylvania ; and many districts of Maine, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Phode Island, rare sj^ort 
might be had. For September shooting, "No. 8 shot will 
be found sufficient ; but after that, 'No. 7 ; and very late 
in the season, Eley's wire cartridges will be found the 
most effective. 

This w^idely extended bird is too well know to require 
any peculiar description ; and I shall content myself 
with observing, in aid of my portraitm-e of the Puifed 
Grouse, that the upper part of its head and hind neck 
are reddish-brown, the back rich chestnut, mottled with 
heart-shaped spots of white, edged wdth black. The tail 
is bright reddish-yellow, barred and speckled w^ith 
black, and bordered by a broad, black belt between two 
narrow white bands, one at the extremity of the tail. 
The iris of the eye hazel, bill brown, feet brownish gray. 
Loral band cream color. Throat and fore-neck, brown- 
ish-yellow. Upper ruff-feathers barred wdth brown. 
^Yings brownish-reel, streaked wdth black. Breast and 
abdomen cream colored, closely barred above, and late- 
rally spotted below, with dark chocolate. Length 18 



THE KUFFED GKOUSE. 299 

inclies, spread of wings 2 feet. The Kufied Grouse is a 
capital bird on the table. The breast white meat, back 
and thiglis brown. It should be roasted quickly, eaten 
with bread sauce and fried crumbs, and washed down 
with sherry or red wine. 



THE PERCH. 

The Yellow Percli ; Percafiavescens. 

This fine fisli, wliicli belongs to the family Percoidai^ 
of the division AcantJiajpterygii^ or thorny-finned, is the 
common perch of the waters of the United States; 
ranging from the extreme east to the extreme west of 
the continent; from the streams and pools of JTova 
Scotia and IsTew Brunswick, to the feeders of Lake Supe- 
rior and the northern tributaries of the Canadian lakes. 

To the northward, it is n^t found in the rivers flowing 
into the Arctic Ocean or Hudson's Bay, and its southern 
limit is ill-defined, and can scarcely be ascertained, ex- 
cept by personal inspection ; since the denizens of the 
southern waters have been disfigured by appellations, 
ocal, provincial, and, most unscientifical, so barbarous 
<is to defy the most intelligent inquirer. 

The title of the division AcantJiojjterijgii, or thoroiy- 
iinned^ is founded on the principle that every genus and 
sub-genus thereof has one or more of the fins supported 



THE PEECH. 301 

Oil, or preceded by, strong, sharp spines, capable of 
inflicting a severe wound, and forming a very efficient 
weapon of defense, so that the boldest and most vora- 
cious of fishes rarely venture to seize them. All the 
genera have two dorsal fins — the first, or foremost, of 
which is invariably supported on spines, as opposed to 
soft branched rays ; while the second, or hindmost, is of 
soft texture, preceded by one or more hard spines — two 
pectoral fins, both soft-rayed — one ventral, and one anal, 
each of which is often preceded by one or more spines 
— and one caudal, or tail fin, which is the main proj^ell- 
ing power of the animal. On the number of the hard 
spines supplementary to the soft fins, are founded the 
different families ; and on the number of spines in the 
first dorsal, the dental system, and some other parts of 
the bony structure, the lesser, or individual distinctions. 
On color, as distinctive of genera, or even varieties, 
little or no reliance can be placed, unless confirmed by 
distinct variations in the bony formation ; since in all 
fishes there is observed to exist a great range of hues, 
shades, and even positive colors, arising sometimes from 
mere casual influences operating on individual speci- 
mens, sometimes from accidents of light or shade affect- 
ing peculiar situations, and most frequently of all from 
the soil and character of the feeding-grounds, and from 
the various mineral or earthy substances held in solution 
by the waters they frequent. 

These latter influences frequently modify tlie same 



302 AMEKICAN GAJsiE. 

fisli ill different streams, even of tlie same region and 
neigliborhood, and flowing over soils apparently identi- 
cal, to such an extent, that the casual observer not 
unnaturally believes them to be distinct varieties, if not 
species, and can be with difficulty convinced, on the im- 
mutable evidences of structural sameness. 

This fact has led, in a great measure, to the compli- 
cating and confounding the science of Natural History, 
by the undue multiplication of names, species, and 
genera, where no specific differences exist ; rendering 
the science infinitely difficult to the beginner, and 
causing the unlearned to undervalue the lore of the na- 
turalist, and to deny the reality of all scientific distinc- 
tions whatsoever. 

On differences of structure, such as the situation and 
texture of the fins, the number of spines or soft rays in 
each, the form of the gill covers, the character and 
position of the teeth, perfect reliance may be placed, as 
indicating unchangeable specific characteristics, by ob- 
servation of which the educated naturalist will name at 
a glance the species, genus and sub-genus of any fish, 
unseen before ; and will unerringly determine his habits, 
his food, and in some degree his habitation. 

Thus of the Percoid family we distinguish the sub- 
genera Perca^ perch proper, from Gristes and Centibar- 
ckus^ to which are referred the types black basse of the 
lakes, and the little rock basse of the St. Lawrence 
basin, by the fiict that the Pcrcm have one spine to the 



THE PEKCH. 305 

ventrals aud two to tlio anal. The Gristes one to the 
ventrals and three to the anal. The Centrarchi one to 
the ventrals and six to the anal. 

And in like manner, by the number of spines support- 
ing the first dorsal, we are enabled to pronounce on the 
truth or untruthfulness of the many subdivisions of the 
perch family, as predicated by the fishermen of various 
regions, and insisted on by credulous naturalists, such as 
Dr. Smith, of Massachusetts, whose book is rendered 
absolutely valueless by the readiness which he displays 
in adopting every local legend concerning new varieties, 
and classifying new species ; until, if we believe him at 
all, we must believe that every several stream t?nd pool 
from Maine to Minnesota has its own distinct variety of 
perch ; nor of perch only, but of trout, and, more or less, 
of every finny tenant of the waters. 

The truth appears to have been at length firmly es- 
tablished, and to be this — ^that there is but one clearly 
defined and distinct perch, pcrca flavescens, the yellow 
perch, found in the United States — that the jpcrca flu- 
matilis^ common river perch of Europe, does not exist 
at all in American waters, though it is so closely con- 
nected with our fish that a casual observer would pro 
nounce them identical — that the supposed subgenera of 
jperca granidata^ or rough-headed perch, perca argentea^ 
silver perch, ^<?r<?(^ acuta, or sharp-nosed perch, 2indijperca 
gracilis, said to be peculiar to the small lakes of Ska- 
neateles, in the interior of Xevv^ York, are not sufficient- 



304: AMERICAN GAME. 

ly made out as permanent varieties ; and tliat tlie 
variations of color from dark, green and greenish 
brown, to bright yellow, silvery, and something nearly 
approaching to orange, are merely local, casual^ and 
individual differences, and not general, permanent, 
specific distinctions. 

The following luminous description of this game and 
excellent fish is borrowed from Dr. Eichardson's Taura- 
hireali-Americana^ or natural history of the l^orthern 
l^egions of America, including parts of the United 
States, and the British Provinces as far north as to the 
Arctic Ocean. The specimen from which it was com- 
piled was cauglit at Penetanguishine, on the great 
Georgian bay of Lake Huron, but will ansv/er for fish of 
this genus taken in any part of America which they 
n: ay chance to frequent; so small is their variation in 
8J1T respect but that of color, which apj^ears to vary in 
cbodience to no fixed law of locality or latitude, except 
tliat it appears to me that of the fishes taken in estuaries 
and at the mouths of tidal rivers, the color is deeper and 
the tints fade from cerulean black along the dorsal out- 
line to olive green on the flanks, w^ith a silver belly ; 
while in clear lakes and fresh streams, they change from 
olive-green on the back to bright golden yellow on the 
sides and belly. 

THE YELLOW PEECII. 

Color. — General tint of the back greenish-yellow ; ol 
the sides golden -yellow with minule black specs; and 



THE PEiicn. 305 

of tlie belly whitish. Nine or ten dark bands descend 
trom the back to the sides, and taper away toward the 
belly ; tlie alternate ones are shorter, and on the tail and 
shoulders they are less distinctly defined ; the longest 
band is opposite to the posterior part of the first dorsal 
fin, on which there is a large black mark. 

Form. — ^The body is moderately compressed, its great- 
csi thickness being somewhat more than one half of its 
depth. Its profile is oblong, tapering more toward the 
tail, which is nearly cylindrical : its greatest de]3th is at 
the ventrals, and rather exceeds one-fourth of the total 
length, caudal included. 

The head constitutes tw^o-seyenths of the total length, 
and its.height, at the eye, is equal to one-half its length 
from the tip of the snout to the point of the gill-cover. 
The forehead is flat, but appears depressed, owing to the 
convexity of the nape. The snout is a little convex. 
The orbits are lateral, distant more than one of their own 
diameters from the tip of the snout, and more than two 
diameters from the point of the gill-cover. The jaws are 
equal. The mouth descends as it runs backward, its 
posterior angle being under the centre of the orbit. 

Teeth. — The intermaxillaries, lower-jaw, knob of the 
vomer, and edge of the palate-bones, are covered with 
very small, straight or slightly-curved, densely-crowded 
teeth {en velours). The vault of the palate, posterior 
part of the vomer, and the pointed tongue, are smooth. 

Gill-cover H. — The j)re()perculum is narrow; its upper 



P)06 A^IERICAN GAME. 

limb rising vertically forms a riglit-angle witli the lowe: 
one ; and its edge is armed Vv^tli small spinous teeth, 
those on the lower limb being directed forward. Tlie 
bony opercukmi terminates in a narrow sub-spinous 
point, beneath which there are three denticulations, with 
grooves running backward from them. An acute - 
pointed membranous flap prolonged from the margin of 
the suboperculum conceals these parts iu the recent fish. 
The edi^Q of the interoperculum and posterior part of the 
s^iboperculum are minutely denticulated. The edges of 
the humeral bones are slightly grooved and denticulated, 
the denticulations being more obvious in some individu- 
als than in others. 

/Scales. — There are sixty scales on the lateral line, and 
twenty-two in a vertical row between the first dorsal and 
centre of the belly. The scales are rather small, their 
bases truncated and farrowed to near the middle {striees 
en eventaiV) by six grooves corresponding to eight minute 
lobes of the margin. A narrow border of the outer 
rounded edge is very minutely streaked, producing teeth 
on the margin, visible under a lens. The length and 
breadth of a scale, taken from the side, are about ec[ual, 
being two and a half lines. A linear inch measured on 
the sides or belly, longitudinally, contains twelve scales, 
the scales on the belly having, however, less vertical 
breadth. On the back an inch includes seventeen or 
eighteen. The asperity of the scales is perceptible to 
1/16 linger, when it is drawn over them from the tail 
12" 



THE PEECn. '6\j7 

toward tlie head. Tlie lateral-line is tlirice as near ij 
the back as to the bellj, and is slightly arched till it 
passes the dorsal and anal fins, when it runs straight 
through the middle of the tail. It is marked on each 
scale by a tubular elevation, which is divided irregularly 
by an oblique depression. 

Fms.—Bv. 7—7; D. 13—1 1 13; P. 14; V. 1 | 5; A. 
2 I 8; C. IT 5-5.^ 

The first dorsal commences a little posterior to the 
point of the gill-cover and to the pectorals : its fourth 
and fifth rays are the highest : the first ray is slender 
and not half the height of the second ; the last ray is so 
short as to be- detected only by a close examination. 
The second dorsal commences a quarter of an inch from 
the first, the space between them being occupied by two 
or three inter-spinous bones without rays : its first ray is 
spinous, and is closely applied to the base of the second, 
which is thrice as long, distinctly articulated, and 
divided at the tij) ; the remaining rays are all divided at 
their summits, but at their bases the articulations are 
obsolete. The pectorals originate opposite to the spinous 
point of the operculum ; they are somewhat longer than 
the ventrals, which are attached opposite to the second 
spine of the first dorsal. The anal is rounded : its first 

* Br. represents the rajs Tvithin the gill-covers, which form the 
breathing apparatus of the animal— D. the dorsals — P, pectorals — Y. 
ventrals— A. anal— G. caudal. The notations 1 j 13, 2 | 5, and 2 | 8, 
^•cspectively indicate one hard spine, thirteen soft rays, etc. etc. 



308 a:merican game. 

ray is one-fonrtli part shorter than the second, both being 
spinous : the succeeding rays are articulated and branch- 
ed, the five anterior ones being longer than the second 
spine, the others becoming successively shorter : its 
termination is opposite to that of tlie second dorsal. 
The caudal is distinctly forked, its base is scaly, the 
scales advancing farther on the outer rays and covering 
one-third of their length. 

Such is the general description of the fish throughout 
the country at large, but great allowance must be made 
for accidental and local variations of color, some speci- 
mens being light green, backed and barred with black, 
with silvery bellies, others exactly as portrayed above, 
others nearly orange, and approaching in some degree to 
the splendor of the gold-fisli. 

As I have observed, no fish is more general than this, 
in every description of waters throughout his range in 
the United States. From the largest rivers, so low down 
their channels that the waters begin to be brackish, to 
the smallest mountain rivulets ; from the mill-pond, and 
small, clear mountain tarn, to the vast expanses of 
Huron, Michigan and Superior, they are omnipresent 
and numerous. 

They spawn in March, each female exuding a vast 
quantity of spawn. So many as 992,000 ova liaving 
been taken, as it is stated by Mr. Brown in his " Ameri- 
can Angler's Guide," though he does not annex his 
authority, from a single female. 



TUE rEKClI. 309 

They may be taken during every montli of the year 
with the hook, being bold biters and among the most 
voracious of all fishes, devouring the "*spawn and young 
fry of their own species with savage avidity, and being 
among the most deadly foes to the trout preserves, owing 
to the rapacity with which they ransack the spawning 
beds. 

They are in the main a lively and active fish, roving 
about in small bands or shoals, sometimes swimming 
high and near tlie surface, leaping merrily at the flies 
and smaller water insects, and sometimes, especially in 
clear, rapid scours of gravel-bedded rivers, sweeping 
along tlie bottom, gathering the small, red brandling 
worms, of Avhicli they are very fond, caddises, and other 
water reptiles, as well the spawn of such fish as use 
these localities. 

The larger fish will, however, often select stations, 
such as the lee of a large stone at the tail of a ripple, 
especially under the umbrage of trees growing on the 
bank, or among the piles and timbers of mill-dams or 
sluice-ways, whence they sally out like the pike or trout 
on any passing prey with great velocity and accuracy of 
aim. Still even these are decidedly gregarious, as one is 
never found singly in a hole, such places being invaria- 
bly frequented by such a band as it will liberally sup- 
port, w^lio rarely stray beyond its limits, and prey, for the 
most part over the same fishing-ground, and in the same 
course. 



310 AMEEICAN GAME. 

Tliis propensity is taken advantage of by tlie anglei-j 
since, when lie has once struck npon a well-stocked 
haunt, while the ffsh are in the humor to bite, he v/ill be 
very apt, if patient and skillfal, to take the whole shoal 
without the loss of a single fish. 

The growth of the yellow perch is slow, and apjDears 
to be proportioned pretty accurately to the size and 
character of the waters which he frequents. In small, 
swift-running brooks, or little spring-ponds or mill-dams, 
he rarely exceeds a few inches in length and a few 
ounces in weight, partaking generally of the green and 
silvery type of the fish. In estuaries and large rivers, in 
the pellucid tarns and lakelets, which are dotted so 
l)eautifully through all the uplands of the eastern and 
middle states from Maine to Pennsylvania, in the vast 
expanses of the great northern lakes of Canada, in the 
giant rivers of the west, they attain far more rapidly to 
a great size, three or four pounds being a run by no 
means unusual, and individuals being not unfrequently 
taken up to five, six and seven pounds, v/hen they are 
very firm, fat, and in capital condition for the table. 

They may be caught in all months of the year. ^Ir. 
Brown considers that they " may bo had in the 
largest quantities and in the finest condition from May 
to July ;" but from my own experience, which has been 
limited principally to the lakelets of Maine, to Green- 
wood or Wawayanda lake, in Orange count3\ ^ew York, 
to Lake Ilopatkong, desecrated into Brooklyn pond, in 



THE PEKCH. 31:1 

Sussex county, IscYi Jersey, and to some of tlie iiortli 
eastern streams and ponds of Pennsylvania, I sliould say 
til at late in tlie autumn — 

When the maple boughs are crimson, 

And the hickory shines like gold, 
And the noons are sultry hot, 

And the nights are frosty cold ; 

Tliey bite with greater freedom, sliow more sport, and 
are better on tlie table than at any other season of the 
year. 

The yellow perch is a bold, nay ! a savage biter, and 
a greedy feeder ; it is even recorded of him that he has 
been known to strike at his own eye, casually torn out 
by the point of the hook, which is to me by no means 
incredible. 

Securely weaponed by the sharp palisade of arrowy 
spines bristling along his back, and by the stout jagged 
thorns protruding in advance of his ventral anal fins, 
when of any considerable size, he fears neither the 
tremendous rush and shark-like jaws of the savage mas- 
calonge, nor the terrible agility and dauntless daring of 
the namaycush and siskawity, those vast lake trouts, but 
feeds himself, a lesser tyrant of the waters, on whatever 
crosses his path of havoc. 

A light, stiff, ten-foot rod, with a small reel, and 
twenty-five or thirty yards of line, with a sm.all cork 
doat, and a proper sinker for bottom, fishing, is the best 



312 AJMEKICAN GAME. 

implement ; and the best baits for tliis metliod are the 
common ground-worm or the little scarlet brandling. 
The latter j)articiilarly in rapid channels and scours. 
Cheese pastes are also used, and at times successfully, 
but I do not advocate their use, but the most certainly 
deadly of all baits is the paste made from the preserved 
roe of any fish which frequents the waters you are to 
fish. Trout-roe, in lakes or rivers haunted by that 
gamest and best of all the inhabitants of the water, kills 
unerrino^lv. 

In brackish water shrimp beats the world for perch, 
remembering that you fish near to or upon the bottom. 

Perch, especially when of large size, may be trolled 
for as pike, with the hind legs of a frog, or with any 
small fish on a gorge hook. But in my opinion the 
prettiest of ail modes of catching them is to rove for 
them with the live minnow. 

For this purpose you take a fine, clear, gut leader^ 
with a Iso. 9 Limerick hook whipped on at the tail, and 
an inch and a half above it, and back to back to the tail 
hook, a second one size smaller than the first. The 
upper should be hooked securely into the lower jaw of a 
moderate sized minnow, and the lower into his dorsal fin, 
care being taken not to pierce his back, when he will 
swim about naturally and gayly for many hours, if not 
taken by a fish, and if carefully released without lacera- 
tion, will survive the operation. A small cork, or what 
is better, quill-fioat, is necessary to this method, and a 



THE PEJKCH. 313 

few shot, sufficient to sink the bait to witliin three 
inches of the bottom. When a bite is felt, a little time 
should be given before striking : when struck, the perch 
is surely taken, for though he pulls hard for a short time 
he has neither the fierce courage nor the wily craft of 
the trout, but succumbs after a few brief struggles. A 
reel is necessary, and the floa^ often dispensed with by 
veteians in the art. 

The following very graphic extracts, on perch fishing 
in the waters of the I^iagara river and Lake Erie, are 
from the pen of probably the best piscatorial writer of 
the United States, long an esteemed correspondent of the 
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, from whose lucubrations 
I have borrowed largely in my larger works on " Fish 
and Fishing," and to whom I gladly recoFv' my obliga- 
tion : 

'' The Yelloio Perch. This beautiful and active fish 
is almost omnipresent in the fresh waters of the North- 
ern States. There are probably two distinct but similar 
species in our country, 1)1 ended together under this com- 
mon name. The perch of JSTew England differs from 
ours principally in the shape of the head. In the Sara- 
toga Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayuga Outlet, the Flats of 
Lake Huron, and many other localities, the perch is 
larger than with us, frequently weighing three pounds. 
Among the j)erch of our streams and rivers, a half-pound- 
er is a very portly citizen — though on a few particular 

"bars they are sometimes taken in considerable numbers, 
li 



314 AMEKICAN GAME. 



averaging nearly a pound each. It is almost always to 
be had, from earliest spring to the commencement of 
winter ; and when poor Piscator has had all his lobsters'^ 
taken by the sheeps-head, and utterly despairs of bass, 
he can, at any time, and almost any where, in our river, 
bait with the minnow and the worm, and retrieve some- 
what from frowning fortune, by catching a mess of 
perch. 

'' In the spring, as soon as the ice has left the streams, 
the perch begins running up our creeks to spawn. lie 
is then caught in them in great plenty. About the 
middle of May, however, he seems to prefer the 
Is^iagara's clear current, and almost entirely deserts the 
Tonawanda, and other amber waters. You then find 
him in the eddies, on the edge of swift ripples, and often 
in the swift waters, watching for the minnow. As the 
water-weeds increase in height, he ensconces himself 
among them, and, in mid-summer, comes out to seek his 
prey only in the morning and toward night. He seems 
tc delight especially in a grassy bottom, and when the 
black frost has cut down the tall water-weeds, and the 
more delicate herbage that never attains the surface is 
withered, he disappears until spring — probably secluding 
himself in the depths of the river. 

" The back fin of the perch is large, and armed w^ith 
strong spines. He is bold and ravenous. He will not 
give way to the pike or to the black bass ; and though 
* By lobsters tlie writer means the small fresli-watcr crayfish. 



THE PERCH. 315 

lie may SDinetimcs be eaten by them, liis comrades will 
retaliate upon tlie young of his destroyers. 

" The j)roper bait for the perch is the minnow. lie 
Avill take that at all seasons. In mid-summer, however, 
he ])refer3 the worm, at which he generally bites freely. 
He is often taken with the grub, or with small pieces of 
fish of any kind. 

^' He is a capital fish at all times for the table. Ilis 
flesh is hard and savory, lie should be fried with salt 
pork rather than butter, and thoroughly done. lie 
makes good chowder, though inferior for that j^urpose to 
the black bass or the yellow pike. 

" A difference of opinion exists among our most tasteful 
ictliyophagists, as to whether this fish should be scaled 
or skinned. Let me tell you how to skin him. Take a 
sharp pointed knife, and rip up the skin along the back, 
from the posterior extremity of the back fin, on one or 
both sides of it, along its whole length — then take the 
fish firmly by the head with the left hand, and with the 
right take hold of the skin of the back near the head, 
first on one side and then on the other, and peal it down 
over the tail. This being done, all the fins are thereby 
removed except those of the back and belly, which are 
easily drawn out by a gentle pulling towards the head. 
Cut oil the head, and you have a skinless, finless lump 
of pure white flesh. Some say this is the only way a 
perch should be prepared for the cook's art—others say 
it impairs the flavor, and should never be pursued. As 



316 AMEKICAN GAME. 

for me, I say, ' in medio tutissirtius ihis^ — neither of tlie 
disputants is infallible. Mucli, nqtj mncli of the sweet- 
ness of the perch, and, indeed, almost all fishes, resides 
in the skin, which slionld never be parted with except 
for some special reason ; therefore, as a general thing, I 
scale my perch. But, in snmmer, the skin of the perch 
is apt to acquire a slightly bitter taste, or a smack of the 
mud— therefore, in summer, I skin my perch." 

Before quitting this subject, I will simply point out 
that tJie excellent little pan fish taken in salt water, near 
the turn of the tide, in most of our large rivers, and 
usually known as white perch, or silver perch, is not a 
perch, but the little white, or the little red bass. And 
herewith, good-night; and good luck to the gentle 
friends and good fishermen all who read Graham. 



XII. 
DECEMBER. 



Fidigula Bemaculata. 

MASSACHUSETTS SOUTH TO THE CHESAPEAKE; WEST TO 
THE MISSISSIPPI. 



9iI9iiij A..v.+ A.:« 4:. 



o 

Fuligula Bissaeulata. 

A-RCTTC BEGIONS TO THE ST. LAWRENCE AND LAKE 
MICHIGAN. 



THE CANVAS-BACK DUGSL 
F'ldigula Yalisneria. 

Of a tnitli this is tlio royalty of Ducks. JSTo other 
water-fowl to liiin is ccjiial, or second, or in anywise com- 
paraLle ; and the iinliappy man who pictures to him- 
self, in the vain imaginings of his own heart, that he is 
f3i gourmet J that he is blessed with a refined, delicate, 
discriminating palate ; that he is capable of criticism, 
nay, of acciim.nlated judgment, npon edibles, not having 
tasted yet a Gunpowder Eivcr Canvas-Back, reeking 
from the spit, with no condiment, save a modicnm of 
salt and a stick of his bird's kindred plant, the celery, 
may go back to his rudiments ; for when he shall once 
have been blessed with fruition of that rare mouthful, ho 
will be compelled, how reluctant soever, to admit that 
all his boasted knowledge is but the knowledge of his 
- >vn woful ignorance. 

And while we are speaking of our king of water-fowl, 



320 A^IEKICAN GAI^LE. 

as seen and felt upon the board, not yet in Lis grander 
and nobler caj)acitj and character, as game in the free 
air, or on the liberal waters, let ns observe that the cook 
who sends this glorions fowl red-raw np to the table, to 
be cut up butcherly and bedeviled in a chafing-dish, 
with wine and jelly, and I know not what, is worthy of 
a rope and the nearest lamp-post — death without benefit 
of clergy. The man who would so condescend to eat 
him, his juicy, melting, natural richness disguised by 
cloying artificial sweetness, deserves incontinently to be 
elected a New York alderman, and doomed to batten, 
life-long, at the corporation tea-table ; nor can we con- 
ceive a doom more hideous or intolerable to be endured 
by any rational, much more refined or thinking man, 
than such a condemnation ; whether we regard the 
quality of the gross feeders and fowl-livers with whom 
RQ would have to consort, or the nature of the ill-cooked 
ill-assorted, rank and racy viands which he would be 
compelled to absorb. 

ISTo ! let the kitchen be the kitchen, and its work be 
done within its own confines. Let the duck, roasted to 
a turn, redolent of a rapid fire, and brownly, nay, but 
almost Jjlackly crisp without, be served up on its lordly 
dish, without one gout of sauce or gravy to dim the 
splendor of the slieeny porcelain. A vase of celery 
may accompany him, and, if you Vv-ill, a salver of halved 
lemons, but no more. Let him be placed before the 
4ght man of the company, one competent to 



THE CAlx'YAS-BACK DUCK. 321 

Carve hira as a dish for gods, 
Xot licw liim as a carcass for the hounds." 



Tlien, if lie be indeed the very man, it is a pleasure in 
itself to observe liim. Mark how dantilj between his 
thumb and forefinger only he i)oises the elaborate and 
burnished steel ; how dexterously and without effort he 
slides it through the rich scarlet muscle, glowing like a 
ripe pomegranate when its skin is severed, through car- 
tilage and joint unerring — ■ 

"And as he draws his trenchant steel away, 
Mark how the blood of Ga3sar follows it," 

xill the broad dish, of late so bright and stainless, is filled 
even to o'erflowing with the rare, crimson gravy, and. 
the whole atmosphere of the dining room is perfumed 
with the nohle fmnei. 

And, now to descend from no inappropriate raptures 
to the world of common sense and the terrestrial limits 
of Duckdom, be it known, that all this delicacy of flavor, 
all this rare juciness and melting pinguidity, are attrib- 
utable solely to the nicety and gentlemanly habits of 
your Chesapeake Canvas-Back, in that he feeds, revers- 
ing the modus operandi of my friends, the knights of the 
tea-table, wisel}^, but not too well. Your Canvas-Back 
of the Chesapeake Bay, but more especially of the Gun- 
powder river, is the nobleman of that ancient dominion ; 

whereas, all otlier Canvas-Backs, even of the James, the 
14:- 



322 AMERICAN GAME. 

PotomaCj and the Patapsco, shall be at once distinguish- 
ed as mere par'oenues and merchant princes ; as those 
from the Hudson, the Sound, or the great South Bay, 
rank as the mere snobs and vulgarians — the very out- 
casts of Duckdom. 

The wonderful difference which exists between these 
fowl, when shot on the waters of the Chesapeake and 
elsewhere, arises solely from the difference of their food. 
The Canvas-Back ranges across many degrees of this 
continent, from the Falls of St, Peter's on the Upj)er 
Mississippi, whence I possess a pair of line stuffed speci- 
mens, sent to me by my friend Mr. Sibley, now M. C. 
for Minnesota, corresponding in every particular with 
the same birds from the southern estuaries, so far north 
as the Long Island Sound, and the great lagoons between 
its southern side and the outer beaches on which I have 
frequently killed it. But nowhere is it a superior duck^ 
except on the waters and tributaries of the Chesapeake, 
where its favorite food, the wild celery, as it is incorrect- 
ly called, Zostera Valisneria, or Yalis7ieria Americana, 
grows in the greatest abundance, and imparts to it that 
peculiar richness and delicacy, wdiich it bestows on none 
of its congeners, though all these, too, it wonderfully 
improves, particularly the Widgeon, or Baldpate, Anas 
Araericana, regarded as second to it longo intevoallo, 
and the Eed-IIeaded Duck, or Pochard, Ftiligula ferina, 
v/hich may be regarded as its cousin german. While 
speaking of the birds in this relation I may mention that 



THE CANVAS-UACK DUCK. 823 

the Eed-IIead, thongli immeasurably inferi(»r to the 
Canvas-Back, where both can feed on the valisne7'ia, is 
as far siipeiior to it when shot on sea-ways where both 
are compelled to feed on other species of sea-grass and 
weeds. Indeed, I consider the Duskey Duck, commonly 
known as the Black-Duck, a better bird on the ISTorthern 
Atlantic sea-board than this fowl. 

The valisneria of which it is so fond, and to which it 
owes so much of its excellence, grows only on fresh 
shoals, in water from seven to nine feet, which are never 
left bare at the lowest tides. It is a long grass-like 
plant, with narrow leaves of five or six feet in length or 
upward, and is said to grow so thickly that a boat can 
scarcely be pulled through it ; the root is white, and 
somewhat resembles celery, whence its common name, 
and on this only do the ducks feed, the Canvas-Back and 
Scaup-Duck, Fulujula Marila — the Black-IIead of the 
Chesapeake, and Broad-Bill of Long Island — for these 
three are one — being reported to dive for it, and u23root 
it, while the less vigorous and active Red-Head and 
Widgeon rob the rightful possessors of it when they rise 
to the surface after their long dive. 

Tlie Red-Head closely resembles the Canvas-Back, and 
is often palmed off on the unwary as that bird, yet to an 
experienced eye the distinction is broadly apparent. In 
the first place the Canvas-Back is ver\^ considerably the 
larger bird, measuring two feet in length by three feet 
from wing to wing, and weighing, when in condition, 



324 A^IEKICAN GAl^IE. 

full three pounds. The upper parts of the Cauvas-Backc 
are much lighter, and the colors ejenerally clearer and 
l)]-ighter than in the Ked-Head, which I consider identi- 
cal with the European Pochard. It is in the heads of 
the two birds, however, that the difference will be most 
readily perceived, the bill of the Canvas-Back being 
above three inches long, purely black, and very high at 
the base ; whereas that of the Eed-IIead is bluish, 
except at the tip, where it is black, and rarely exceeds 
two and a quarter inches, besides being much flatter 
where it joins the head. Perhaps the best distinction, 
however, is in the eye, for that mark is positive, whereas 
all the others are merely comparative; the irides^ or 
circles around the pupil being, in the Canvas-Eack, 
deep, fiery red ; whereas in the other bird they are of a 
lurid reddish-yellow or chestnut. 

I have been somewhat particular in insisting on. these 
differences, as I find that there prevails much uncertainty 
regarding them, and as the pointing out these with 
precision may protect some fair readers, if any deign to 
cast their eyes over this paper, as well as gentle sports- 
men, from deception and disappointment. 

The Canvas-Back drake, in full phuuage, is a magnifi- 
cently handsome fowl, and his speed and power of sus- 
tained flight, as well as extraordinary agility and 
persistence in diving are in all respects commensurate 
with his beauty. 

The crown of' his head, the space between the bill and 



THE CAHVAS-BACK DUCK. 325 

tlie eye, and the throat, are dusky ; the sides of the 
head, neck all round and the greater part of its length, 
rich, ruddy chestnut ; the lower neck, breast, and back, 
deep, s.i)Oty black, the rest of the back white, closely 
undulated with narrow black lines; the wing-coverts 
gray, speckled with black ; j)rimaries and secondaries 
light slate color; rump tail-coverts and tail, blackish; 
lower breast and abdomen, white ; flanks white, finely 
undulated wdth gray ; under tail-coverts, grayish-black. 

The female is inferior in size to the male, and general- 
y of a dingy, grayish-brown, except the abdomen, 
which is white, j)enciled with blackish lines. 

This bird is unknown except on this continent, never 
being found in Europe ; and of its habits, except during 
the winter months, v\'hich it spends in our sea-bays and 
estuaries, little or nothing has been ascertained, so that 
of all its most interesting peculiarities in nidification, 
incubation, and the rearing of its young, we are almost 
wholly ignorant. 

That it breeds in the extreme north we are, of course, 
assured, and that it is not averse to a more than mode- 
rate degree of cold, since it stays with us even after the 
ice has made, when it can feed only through air-holes, 
iiud is never found far south, of the capes of the Chesa- 
peake. It does not, moreover, become very abundant 
even on those its favorite waters, until the cold weather 
has fairly set in, about the middle of I^ovember, and a 
^aaalh later it is considered to be in its prime. It is^ 



326 A^IEEICAN GAME. 

however, very remarkable, that I cannot discover tliai 
the Canvas-Back is ever seen or known to visit the great 
Upper Lakes, where the Eead-Head is also rare, though 
Widgeon and Scaup abound, and though the northern 
tributaries of Lake Huron, as well as the flats of the 
Lake St. Clair are overgrown with all the various plants 
in which they most delight, both the Yalisneria Ameri- 
cana^ and the zizania jpanicula cffusa^ known as wdld 
rice, flourishing in wonderful profusion, and imparting 
their peculiar qualities of flavor, tenderness, and juci- 
ness to all the tribes of water-fowl, even the least worthy, 
which haunt these deep, ice-cold, translucent waters. 
The only solution I can ofl'er for this seeming anomaly, 
for all the other ducks pause to recruit awhile in those 
favorable feeding-grounds while on their southward 
course, is that the Canvas-Back and Ked-IIead do not 
move en masse from the northern sea-shores, until those 
great inland waters are girdled around their margins, 
and winter-bound along their tributary streams by fetters 
of thick-ribbed ice, and that the fowl in consequence 
pass over without pausing or becoming known, to their 
great detriment, to the red or white inhabitants of the 
coast. Certain it is, that they are unknown to the 
Indian tribes who dwell on the shores or islands of Lak^ 
Huron, and that the officers of the English posts who 
have known them elsewhere, ignore them here. 

To compensate, liowever, for our ignorance concerning, 
their summer habits, haunts, and proceedings, we are 



THE CANVASS BACK DUCK. 327 

well aware of their winter doings and sufferings, for, in 
truth, from the day of their arrival on the waters of the 
Chesapeake to that of their departure in the spring, they 
have small rest by day or by night, in spite of the exer- 
tions of the shooting-clubs to prevent their disturbance 
by sailing boats and punts with swivels on the feeding- 
grounds. 

One of their habits is so curious that it merits peculiar 
attention, though it is shared by these birds with several 
other varieties, the Scaups^ or Black-Heads, and the 
Eead-Heads especially, and sometimes, though rarely, by 
the Widgeon or Bald-Pates ; this habit is a strange 
hallucination, or curiosity, which induces them to swim 
directly in from their feeding-grounds, under the very 
muzzle of the concealed gunner's weapon on the occur- 
rence of any rare or unusual sight, such as an animal at 
play on the beach, or the waving of a red handkerchief 
by day, and a white by night. Advantage is taken of 
this singular propensity to lure them to their doom ; and 
I am* assured by a good sportsman that he has known 
the same flock toled^ as it is called, into easy gun-shot 
and decimated each time, thrice successively within 
half an hour. 

The mode of doing this is thus related by Dr. Sharp- 
less, of Philadelphia, who contributed the account to 
Mr. Audubon, for his "Birds of America," from whom, 
with due acknowledgment, I borrow it, never having 



328 AMEKICAN GA]ME. 

myself enjoyed the pleasure of observing tliis singula 
mode of sporting. 

For this purpose, says the doctor, '' a spot is usually 
selected where the birds have not been much disturbed^ 
and where they feed at from three to four hundred yards 
from, and can approach to within forty or fifty yards of 
the shore, as they never will come nearer than they can 
swim freely. The higher the tides and the calmer the 
day, the better, for they feed closer to the shores and see 
nore distinctly. Most persons on these waters have a 
ace of small white or liver-colored dogs" — other writers 
say red, and resembling the fox-^— " which they familiarly 
call the toler breed, but which appear to be the ordinary 
poodle. These dogs are extremely playful, and are 
taught to run up and down the shore, in sight of the 
ducks, either by the motion of the hand, or by throwing 
chips from side to side. They soon become perfectly 
acquainted with their business, and as they discover the 
ducks approaching them, make their jumps less high, till 
they almost crawl upon the ground to prevent the birds 
discovering what the object of their curiosity may be. 
The nearest ducks soon notice this strange appearance, 
raise their heads, gaze intently for a moment, and then 
push for the shore, followed by the rest. On many occa- 
sions I have seen thousands of them swimming in a solid 
mass direct for the object ; and by removing the dogs 
farther into the grass, they have been brought to within 
fifteen feet of the bank. When they have approached 



THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 329 

to within thirty or forty yards their curiosity is generally 
satisfied, and after swimming np and down for a few 
seconds, they retrograde to their former station. The 
moment to shoot is while they present their sides, and 
forty or fifty ducks have often been killed by a small 
gun." 

It is said that the tendency to overshoot large, solid 
flocks is so great that the oldest and best shots recom- 
mend that the nearest duck be brought into full rehef 
above the sight, when your shot will rake the mass. To 
j)revent the toling dogs from breaking, other dogs, 
crossed between the Newfoundland and water-spaniel, 
are used, which display even more sagacity than the 
tolerSj crouching when the ducks come in, and springing 
up eagerly at the discharge, in order to mark its effect. 
During a flight of fowl, these retrievers are said inces- 
santly to watch the quarter of tlie heavens whence the 
fowl are flying, and to indicate their approach by rest- 
lessness of manner long before the human eye can detect 
them. 

This toling is not, however, regarded by good and 
great duck-shots as a very legitimate or sportsmanlike 
method, and though the sagacity of the dogs, and the 
gradual approach of the ducks in a v/ay so curious must 
give an interest and excitement to the business, it must 
be confessed that blazing away into solid, stationary 
masses of thousands cannot be compared to shooting on 
the win ;'. 



330 A^^IERICAN GAME. 

The true and gnostic mode of shooting, however, is 
from the points or islands, over which the ducks and 
geese fly in going up or down the bay, according as the 
wind may be, and on which blinds or screens are con- 
structed, concealing a seat on which the sportsman 
quietly and comfortably awaits the advent of the fov/1, 
the teams of w^hicli may be seen at a long distance, so 
that their approach, and the doubt to whose stand they 
will give the shot, renders the sport most exciting. 
Retrievers of the same character with those described 
above, are nsed in this flight-shooting ; and the use of 
two heavy fourteen or sixteen j)ounds single guns, carry- 
ing 4 or 5 oz. of 'No. 1 to B shot, as I have recommend- 
ed in my Field Sports for fowl shooting in general, is 
greatly preferred to that of one double gun, heavier in 
fact, but as rega-rds each barrel, lighter, and, therefore, 
neither so safe nor efi'ective as the two singles in succes- 
sion, and by far less easily managed. 

The most celebrated of these stations is Carrol's 
Island, long rented by a club of sporting gentlemen, and 
famous for the astonishing sport it was w^ont to furnish, 
year after year. The Narrows, also, between Spesutia 
Island on the western shore, Taylor's Island at the moutli 
of the Humley, and Abbey Island at the mouth of the 
Bush River, Legoe's Point on the last named stream 
and Rbbbins' and Ricketts' Points, near the Gunpowder 
are all favorite and famous stations. 

The sport is greatly enhanced by the diiHcult}^ of the 



THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 

sliooting ; and it is said that even the best of upland 
shots, or fowl shots, accustomed only to stooling^ fail of 
success at first in this flight-shooting, from the difficulty 
of calculating the distance of the teams, and the rapidity 
of their motion. 

And now, gentle readers, for our time, our topic, and 
our sjjace, are all three exhausted, if you be bound in 
this, the best month, for the fair Chesapeake, steady be 
your hands, and sure your eyes. 



THE WINTEE DUCK. 

The Lake IIukon Scoter. 
Fuligula 'himaculata ? Canard cV hiver. 

This curious and interesting duck is not described in 
any book of natural history, relating to the birds of the 
United States of North America ; nor, so far as I can 
ascertain, is it mentioned or named in any general or 
local work of orthology, unless it may possibly occur 
in Richardson's Fauna horeali Americana^ which I have 
not had an opportunity of consulting. 

It certainly is not to be found either in Aububon or 
Bonaparte, much less in Wilson ; nor could the latter 
be expected to have known it, since in his day the 
regions which it frequents were scarcely discovered, and 
at the best visited only by rude frontiersmen and 'coya- 
getcTS or coureitr^ des hois who are not expected to take 
much note of generic or specific distinctions among the 
varieties of game, which is regarded by them as little 
more than food. 

It is quite certain, however, that this fine duck is now 
at least fully entitled to a place in the Fauna of the 



TUE WINTER DUCK. 333 

CTiiited States, as it has its habitat^ daring a considerable 
portion of the year, on waters within their frontiers, and 
is well-known in the north western regions by the name 
prefixed to this paper, "Winter-Duck." or among the 
Canadian French as the Canard d^hiver, being the 
synonym of the tenn above used. By the Ojibwa 
Indians, of ^ottawasaga Bay, and the Matchedash, it is 
known as the "Big Widgeon" — a most inappropriate 
name, as, beside that it bears no earthly resemblance 
to the proper widgeon, it entirely differs from that bird 
in seasons and habits — the Wido-eon or Bald-Fate beino; 
a smiimer resident in the north-west and migrating to 
the sea-coast southward during the cold, winter months. 
TJiis bird, on the contrary, comes down, as it would 
aj^pear, late in the fall, from the extreme north, and 
winters on the great unfrozen lakes, its southern limit of 
migration not varying much, so far as I can judge, from 
the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. 

My first sight of this bird was during a visit to the 
northern shores of Lake Huron and the great Georgian 
Bay, in company with Lieut. F. C. Herbert, command- 
ing H. M. steam sloop, " Mohawk," then stationed at 
Fenetanguishine. Lnmediately on entering that beau- 
tiful little harbor on a bright morning early in Septem- 
ber, before the steamer was at her moorings, a Fotawat- 
tomie Indian, who could speak no English, came along- 
side in his baik canoe, with some wild-fowl for sale, 
wlilch vrere bought, and handed on deck for ins-section. 



334 AMERICAN GAME. 

At first siglit, I was satisfied tliat the bird in question, 
one of wliicli was included in the lot, among scaup, or 
broad-bills, as thej are commonly designated on the 
Atlantic seaboard, mallards, dusky-duck and wood-duck, 
was a nondescript ; and I laid it aside to sketch and 
describe at my leisure. I soon perceived, however, that 
it had been much mutilated, all tlie secondaries having 
been plucked out, and the upper tail-coverts torn away, in 
order to get at the kernal, from which the birds preen 
themselves, and which the Indians of that region inva- 
riably cut away, and appropriate, for what purpose I 
could not learn. 

In the meantime, I could learn nothing of the bird 
among the settlers in the neighborhood, most of them 
pensioners from the English army, except that it was 
not uncommon in the fall, in the great bay to the north- 
ward of the Manitoulins. The staif-surgeon at the post, 
himself a good naturalist, was ignorant of the bird, 
and we carefully examined our sj)ecimen by such au- 
thorities as were contained in his library, Audubon and 
Wilson, as well as some small English compendiums on 
the subject among the number, arriving at the conclu- 
sion that it certainly was not described in any of these 
works. 

I^early a month afterward, being one of a sporting 
party, which made a canoeing excursion of a week or 
ten days, up the Matchedash or Severn river, which dis- 
charges the waters of Lake Sincoe, lying midway of the 



THE WINTER DUCK. 335 

peninsula between lakes Huron and Ontario, into the 
great Georgian bay, I again came across this unknown 
wild-fowl. 

There had been four or five nights of very sharp frost, 
and ice had formed to the thickness of a dollar, even in 
the river, wdiich is swift, and in places much broken by 
falls and rapids. We had cleared the river, and had 
entered the northern extremity of the lake, Simcoe, 
paddling as fast as we could toward the village of 
Orillia, with two canoes running on nearly parallel 
lines, perhaps a hundred yards apart, when we suddenly 
saw several large plumps of duck coming from the north. 
There were, I should think, thirty or forty fowl in each 
plump, and long before they were nearly within gun- 
shot, I observed that their flight was in itself peculiar, 
and unlike that of any fowl I had ever observed ; for 
they wheeled and swooped frecpiently, more after the 
fashion of plovers, tattlers, or other shore-birds, than of 
any species of duck with which I was previously ac- 
quainted ; and these movements were the more conspic- 
uous, on account of the broad white bars across their 
wings, formed by the secondaries, which were alternately 
seen and lost at every motion. 

At length, one of the smallest flocks wheeled in be- 
tween the two boats, and got the contents of three 
double-barrels, beside the charges of two or more long 
north-west Indian pieces. A good many birds were 
knocked over, quite dead; and a good many more 



33 G AMERICAN GAME. 

scattered away, and dropped more or less severely hurt, 
over tlie clear waters of the bright, sunny lake ; while 
the main body, or what was left of it, settled down and 
was marked by the Indians, on our course toward 
Orillia. Some considerable time was occupied in taking 
the cripj)les ; which were all dispersed, and which swam 
away raj)idly as tlie canoes approached them, none of 
them making any attempt at rising again on the wing, 
seldom diving except when very hard pressed, and then 
only for a little time and short distance. 

When the wounded were all fairly brought to bag, the 
Indians were in great glee, and asserted that tliey could 
paddle us upon them all; which I should have been 
inclined to doubt, had I not learned how very rarely an 
Indian hazards an assertion of which he is not perfectly 
well assured, especially to a white man ; for the duck lay 
full in bright water, in the middle of the lake, wdiich 
was as clear and smooth as a piece of glass, with a bright 
sun shining ; and our canoes were large and full of men ; 
nor was there a particle of wild-rice or sedge whereby to 
cover our approaches. 

IsTevertheless, An-oon-ge-zhig, or the " Starry-Sky," 
for so was our principal conductor styled, made his 
prophesy good ; for he did paddle us directly on the birds, 
and we slaughtered them, as they sat on the water w^ith- 
out offering to fly at our approach, until he had bagged 
the greater part of the whole plump. 

On the following day, having attained the limit of our 



THE WINTEK DUCK. 337 

intended excursion, v:q put our heads to tlie nortll-^\■est- 
ward, and bent our way homeward, the cold weather 
suddenly giving way on the noon of the second day ; 
after which we enjoyed the most delicious Indian-sum- 
mer weather I have ever witnessed. 

During the whole of our run down the Matchedash, 
and through the innumerable rice-lakes into which it 
expands, we had great sport with these same birds, 
which we killed in very considerable numbers, while 
daily we coidd observe them coming in by great flights 
from tlie north ; though, on our way up, only three or 
four days previously, we had not seen a single bird of 
the kind, though we had shot many scaups, mallard, and 
dusky-duck ; and not a few buffel-heads, called by the 
Indians spirit-ducks, from the rapidity with which they 
vanish from the eye when diving at the flash. 

The first thino: which struck me on examinino- the 
specimen shown to me on board the " Mohawk," was 
the peculiar formation of the head and bill, and the 
position of the wings and legs ; all indicating it to be of 
the cl2iss jfidi(/idce, or sea-ducks, and of that coarse, and 
for the most part uneatable, species, generally known 
alone: our sea-board as " Coots " — altliou^-h the true coot 
is an entirely different species, haunting fresh-water 
pools, and belonging to the order of (/rallatores, distin- 
guished from the ducks by having only semipalmated in 
lieu of webbed feet. 

The knovv'u birds uf this genus oi faligul(£^ or sea- 



338 AMERICAN GAME. 

ducks, as established by the authorities, and belonging 
to the United States, are sixteen in number, all of which 
are entirely familiar to me. Of these, seven have the 
bill peculiarly formed, or I might say ^^formed, with 
curious protuberances at its base, and the feathered 
forehead running far down the dorsal, or upper, outline 
of the bill, almost to the nostril. 

These seven are the Eider-duck, the Eing-duck, the 
Ilarlequin-duck, the Pied-duck, the Yelvet-duck, the 
Surf -duck, and the American Scoter ; of these, the three 
last, to all of which this bird bears a very considerable 
resemblance, are known as " coots " on the sea-shore, 
and are distinguishable by what may be called the scoter 
bill, high, and more or less carunculated at the base, 
and often variegated with several bright colors. 

It is remarkable, that of this genus of Fuligulm, eight 
are of the most, two of these the very most, delicious of 
all water-fowl on the table ; I need not specify the 
" Canvas-back," and the " Red-head," as their names 
will occur spontaneously to every sportsman, every gour- 
met in the land — while the other eight, including 
the Long-tailed duck, Old- wife, or South-southerly, are 
fishy, rank, oily; an uneatable abomination. On the 
strength of the similarity of the Winter-duck of Lake 
Huron, to the Scoter family of the sea-ducks, I at once 
prophesied that it would prove, like its congeners, uneat- 
able. My surprise may be imagined when it turned out 
—not by the camp-fire, where, with the Spartan sauce. 



THE WINTER DUCK. 339 

all meat is appetizing — but at tlie comfortable dinner- 
table, with all appliances and means to boot, at Penetan- 
guisliine, whither we conveyed onr booty, one of the 
most delicious duck I ever tasted, and not unworthy to 
be named alongside of the royal Canvas-back himself. 
It was not, in the least degree, fishy or sedgy ; but rich, 
succulent, delicate, and melting in the mouth, like the 
flesh of the fattest duck that ever fed in the Gunpowder 
or the Potomac — ^^^the cause of which undoubtedly is 
this, that in both localities, the food of the fowl is the 
same, the seeds of the wild-rice, zizania jpanicidd effusd, 
the wild-celery, valisneria Americana^ and the eel-grass, 
xostera marina ; all which, or varieties of them, are 
universally found in all the flats and mud-lakes of that 
region. 

On our return to convenient quarters, I immediately 
set myself to work to dissect a sufficient number of these 
fine fowl to satisfy myself as to the distinctions of the 
sexes as to plumage and coloring ; to take careful meas- 
urements, and draw up accurate descriptions ; besides 
making a close and correct drawing of the bird from 
nature. From all tliat I have since been enabled to 
collect, I am well satisfied that this is a new and unde- 
scribed sea-duck from the arctic regions. I have never 
found any one, thougli I have consulted many sportsmen 
and naturalists, who is acquainted with the bird south- 
east of the straits of Mackinaw. At Detroit it is 
unknovv^n, as also on the Canada shores, and that to 



340 A3kIERICAN GAME. 

persons in the continual liabit of shooting fowl on the 
great rice-flats of Algonac on Lake St. Clair, on the 
Chatham marshes at the mouth of the Thames river on 
the same lake, and on the pine-swamps of the Aiix 
Canards^ near Amherstberg, an affluent of the Detroit 
river — all of whicli localities are literally alive with 
wild-fowl at the proper season. 

I have since heard from an officer in II. M. Royal 
Canadian Rifles of two of those birds being killed near 
Prescottj on the St. Lawrence ; but they were utterly 
unknown to the inhabitants there ; and he wrote to mo 
to make inquiries as to their species and name. Dining 
the present summer I learned also, from my friend Mr. 
Dotty, M. C. for Wisconsin, that during the whole winter 
they are exceedingly abundant, wherever open w^ater is 
to be found, on Lake Winnebago and the rivers of that 
region, coming late in the autumn and disappearing in 
the spring. 

Everything, therefore, confirms me in my first idea, 
that this is an as yet nondescript duck, nondescript cer- 
tainly as a fowl of the United States, whose summer 
haunts are far up in the arctic seas, and the winter limits 
of whose migrations do not extend below 44° 30' I^. 
latitude. In this view, I have taken the liberty of sug- 
gesting, should it prove to be hitherto undescribed and 
unnamed, tlie propriety of designating it the "Lake 
Huron Scoter," from its locality, and its resemblance to 
that class of ducks, and, in Latin , '^ I^tdigula Mmacic- 



THE WLNTEE DUCK. 341 

lata^'' from tlie two white spots wliicli arc its most distin- 
gnisliing characteristics. 

The wood-cut at the head of this article is mathemat- 
ically reduced from my own original sketch, and it may 
be described as follows : 

SjyecijiG Character. — Head elongated, elevated toward 
the coronse ; forehead protruding, feathered one-third 
the length of the bill; bill much elevated along the 
dorsal outline, decurved and flattened toward the tip ; a 
broad unguis on both mandibles; nostril oval, pervious, 
one-third nearer the tip than the base ; both mandibles 
deeply lamellated along the gap. Neck short, stout. 
Eody broad, thick, and much depressed; wings short, 
and placed far back ; legs stout, situate very far back, 
scutellate in front, reticullate behind ; tail short, acutely 
ovate ; two centre feathers longest. 

Plumage. — Thick, soft, densely compressed, much 
blended, and having an nnder-stratum of soft, blackish 
down. 

Colors. — Bill, bluish black, v\^ithout any other tint; 
jrides hazel ; legs, in the adult males, dusky crimson, in 
the females dull orange ; claws black ; wxbs black and 
grained like morocco leather ; crowm of the head, nape, 
shoulders, back, upper tail coverts, and tail, sooty black ; 
chin, cheeks, forepart of neck, and upper breast, sleek, 
satiny mouse color. A triangular white spot at the base 
of the upper mandible, extending to the anterior angle 
of the eye ; a larger, irregular, oblong white spot below 



342 AMERICAN GAME. 

and beliind the posterior angle of the eye. Forepart of 
breast, belly, and vent dull, silvery gray; flanks and 
nnder-tail coverts darkish, glossy, monse-colored. Scap- 
ularies, wing-coverts and tertials, dull brownish black ; 
secondaries broadly-banded with white, forming the 
speculum ; primaries jet black, under-wing coverts 
silvery mouse-colored. 

Measurements. — Head 5 inches, tip of bill to nape; 
bill 2 4-10 ; length, to tip of tail, 24 inches ; to tip of 
claws 25 J ; length of tarsus 1 7-10 ; length of middle 
toe 2 G-10; length of wing 9f ; length of middle tail 
feathers 2 1-5 ; extent 27 inches. 

The male bird weighs from 2|- to 3 pounds ; and differs 
from the female only in weight, size, greater distinctness 
of colors, and hue of the legs. 

This duck, for its size, weight, and power on the wing, 
when in full flight, is very easily stopped with moderate 
sized shot ; and is almost equal on the table, as I have 
observed above, to the canvas-back. With decoys, 
immense sport might be had off these birds in the rice- 
lakes which they frequent ; and with or without them, I 
would desire no better fun, than to be, under this clear 
moon beneath which I pen these lines, in a fleet birch- 
bark canoe, with my old friends An-oon-ge-zhig, and the 
" Young Owl," to paddle me upon the fowl among the 
solitary rice-lakes of the lovely Matchedash. My life on 
it, if Vv'e should sleep on hemlock tips with a camp-fire 



THE -VVINTEK DUCK. 343 

at our feetj and no covering above us, but our blankets, 
and the bonny lady moon, we should not fall asleep 
without both play and supper ! Telenimicoon ! to those 
who understand it ! 



FINIS. 



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